Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg
by Chattur'gha0312
Summary: Slightly before the death of Zerg Cerebrate Zasz, remnants of his Garm Brood are charged with the command to travel to another galaxy and wreak havoc. But without the rest of the Swarm, what will become of the newly evolved Rogue Zerg in this new galaxy?
1. Introduction

**Star Wars: The Evolution of the Rogue Zerg**

**Introduction**

Zasz was in pain. Not physically, but _mentally._ All he could hear were the screams of his children as they failed to stop the Protoss. All he could do himself was scream as well.

_Why do I scream_, he thought to himself, _when the other Cerebrates will never hear me?_

It came to him that he could not stop, for the reason was, he was _afraid. _For the first time in a millennium, he had finally faced fear in the face. But like the first time, fear was losing. Because this time, he was not selfish. Or at least, he did not _feel_ selfish. Usually, when his children died, it never mattered. But now, for every scream he heard from them, he felt more and more empty on the inside.

_Why do I even care_, he thought, _they are just mindless minions that I control_.

Again, for the first time, he felt _sorry _for his children. Even though it didn't make any sense, he just did.

Today, Zasz knew that he was going to die. He could not call for help. Why? Because his enemy, the Protoss, found some way to sever his telepathic link with the Overmind and the other Cerebrates. He did not know _how _they did it, just that they did it, somehow.

But he couldn't help but ponder the question.

_How would they be able to do it_, he thought, _to do it they would need someone that used the same energies that I do. _

_The only real answer would be that they have produced some kind of Dark Templar,_ he pondered.

But he could think no further, for he could sense the Protoss getting closer, and closer, until finally, they stood before him.

Zasz's hypothesis had been correct, for not even one of them were zealots. They all looked darker-skinned, from purple to black.

Their leader, who bore a large green warp blade, and who wore nothing but a menacing black clock, spoke to Zasz.

"Vile creature of the Zerg Swarm. Your days in this galaxy are no more," he said very calmly as he fixed his position to an aggressive stance.

"_Get it over with you wretched Protoss," _Zasz said back using his mind to produce sound, _"I already knew this day would come before you came here to murder me and my minions"_.

"I may not technically be of the Protoss Conclave, but that does not mean I do not fight with honor. Is there any last request that you wish to make?"

"_I…" _Zasz hesitated, he was about to say no, but then the last plan he would ever make burst into his head, _"Yes I do have a request."_

"_I want you to let me give one last order to my warriors, it will not be to harm you though, I promise."_

"Fine, beast, say it"

Zasz gave a telepathic smile, _"RUN!! RUN MY MINIONS!!! FLEE THIS PLANET, THIS GALAXY!! FLY TO OTHER PLACES IN THE UNIVERSE!!! SPREAD YOUR DISEASE!!! KILL IN THE NAME OF THE OVERMIND!!! LET NOT A PROTOSS STAND IN YOUR WAY!!! BEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! FREEEEEEEEEE!!!!"_

And at that moment, everything went black. Zasz could no longer see, but all he heard now was the sound of freedom. His minions were doing exactly what he had told them. They were going to spread their chaotic essence to the far reaches of the universe, and in doing so, living on. This new sound did not hurt Zasz, it _healed _him.

"Very clever, Zerg abomination," the leader of the mysterious dark Protoss said, "but it will do you no good."

He then activated his blade which was made of pure psi-energy.

"_Protoss slime. Without me, they will be alone. So that means without me, they will __**evolve.**__" _

And at that moment, Zasz killed himself in a liquid explosion. All Protoss but the leader were engulfed in it. When the other Cerebrates discovered his death, they would say that he was murdered, when in fact, he committed suicide. Within the explosion, Zasz was able to scream forth the last thing he would ever say.

"_LONG. LIVE. THE. SWARM!!!!!!"_

And that is how the story of the Rogue Zerg began.


	2. Chapter 1, Act 1: Reach Through Darkness

**Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg**

Chapter One

Time Period: 20 years before the planetfall of Helska.

"And that my children, is our entire ancestral story that has been revealed to me," the Hive Mind spoke through his telepathic link with underlings. Hive Mind had just finished telling all the underlings the story of their ancestor – Zazs – and how they had come to be where they are.

"My children," Mind spoke up, "You must all know of your place in the Hive. For all the years of continuous space travel we have endured, through my farseeing, I have finally discovered a habitable galaxy and planet!"

All the underlings at once became rambunctious and amazed at such news. Finally after all the decades of no planet, no land… no home, they might be the first generation that would see such a thing.

"Mmmminnnnnd," the Zerg Queen spoke up using the Zerg guttural language instead of telepathy, "Howwwwwww can you beeeeeeee so sure of yourrrrrrrrrrrr discoveryyyyyyyy," she said through her massive incisor teeth, which gave her an accent, "Howwwwwwwww do you know thattttttttttt it is not just another lifelesssssssss rock?"

The Queen's enormous girth of a flying worm may have been intimidating, but Mind was the leader of the colony, not her.

"How, you ask? Because I have sensed the presence of life! That is how!" Mind this time used his large stereophonic voice, so he could display his dominance as the leader. He had to, even if the underlings had begun to evolve their own intelligence enough to speak a language, they still needed to be shown who was boss.

"Wellllllllllllllll," Queen replied, "Ifffffffff this is truuuuuuuuuue, then this will havvvvvvvvvvvve been the largest breakthrough in our races hissssssssssstory."

Mind then proceeded to dismiss the underlings from the Hive chamber.

"Mmmmminnnnnnd," the Queen began to say before she left the chamber, "I hoooooooooooope that what you have found is realllllllllllllll."

"I am certain it is Madam, not only have I sensed it, but I have had visions of our races new life on it."

"Mmmmminnnnnnnd, you know that meansssssssssss you will sleep soon? The visionssssssssssssss.

"Yes, I am aware. But I have estimated that it will be another 40 years before that happens."

"Annnnnnnnnnd? What ifffffffffff your estimation is innnnnnnnncorrect?"

"Then let the Force spare you and the underlings. Without my presence before you all can function as a civilized community, all the restrictions I have put on you will break and all you'll be are mindless killing machines." It was true. Without him, they would all become as hostile as they were before Zazs' death.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr," the Queen scowled, "I alwaysssssssssss thought we were supposssssssssssssed to follow Zazs' orderssssssssssssss."

"We are… in a non-violent way," Mind replied

The Queen then hovered out of the chamber, leaving Mind organically bound to the Hive walls by fleshy cords. He continued to monitor the underlings telepathically. Healing hurt ones, and entertaining newborns with stories, all from a long distance away.

As the light illuminated by the Hive began to dim as sign of slumber, Mind decided to sleep as well that night.

His dream was filled with an amazing dream. A dream of happiness. He saw his people, his underling children, living happy lives together in a safe cavern. He saw them interacting with other alien species. He saw an inevitable apocalypse rain over the colony. He saw one underling – The Arbiter – restore their race again. He saw his own death through the Arbiter's protection. He saw numerous aliens befriend the Arbiter and help him on his journey.

All Mind saw in his dream was hope.

That morning, Mind awoke with tears engulfing his eye for a body. In his dream, his race had called themselves the Rogue Zerg for some reason. He thought that it must be because they found themselves independent from their murderous ancestors. So that afternoon, Mind announced to the colony what they would call themselves when they establish alien contact. Just like he had expected, they voted on the name they liked the most.

That name was the Rogue Zerg.


	3. Chapter 2

**Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg**

Chapter 2

Time Period: 20 years APF (after the planet fall)

Karsona floated across the slime ridden waters of the Spawning Pool. Her thoughts were on life, and her own existence. It was tough being the only female Zerg non-queen. Her genome was that of the zergling.

Why was it tough? Because all newborn Zerg are given a rank by the Hive Mind and if they wish, have their future told to them. And yet Karsona was never given such a thing, title nor future. All non-queen zerg are male, so they have an easily given rank: a hunter, warrior, worker, or trader. All ranks were seen to be the jobs of a male, and yet the only thing the Hive Mind told Karsona was, "My very special child, you may accomplish anything you desire. I for some reason cannot read your future, and for that I don't know why. But I want you and all my children to be happy, which is why I beset no commonplace rank on you. You may do whatever you desire to live in this humble city."

Any male would have thought that to be a blessing, and she knew it was. But in her existence, she could not decide what made her happy. She just wanted to be normal, like all the other Zerg males.

And another strange thing about her was that, not counting the non-underlings, she was the OLDEST and yet still youthful of the zerg. Most zerglings and hydralisks die at the age of 17-19. And yet she had been there during the planet fall, she had been there when the Hive Mind had discovered the name of the planet. She was over 25 years old, and yet she was still in prime youth.

She knew that the reason she couldn't find what made her happy was because even though she had lived so very long, it still didn't seem to be enough time. She was not cut out to be a warrior, since she was smaller than most zerglings. She was no hunter, since she never wanted to cause unnecessary harm. She couldn't even imagine being a trader, because she didn't desire wealth. And by tradition, she could not be a worker.

It was almost night time when she swam out of the spawning pool. Most watering holes were open until midnight so she decided to go to her favorite one, the Black Snowfall Diner. Once she came in through the mouth doors, all the other Zerg, who were peacefully enjoying their drinks, immediately started to move around. Some moved to farther away tables to stay away from Karsona. Some of the more uncaring ones pulled out and put on breath ticks or injected themselves with anti-hormonal drugs to keep themselves from having a hormone rush and collapsing in seizures.

Karsona walked up to Nyrlashia, the bar tender, who was an old diplomat and was a crippled to ground Zerg Queen.

"Hhhhhhi Karsssssona. Honey, wwwwwhat can I gettttttt for you todayyyyyy?" she asked, "The sssssame assssss all wayssssss?"

"Um, uh… yea," Karsona felt a little less lonely in this bar because of Nyrlashia. She was the only zerg female that was a commoner like Karsona. Also Nyrlashia was the only commoner that was older than Karsona.

Nyrlashia began to turn around to get Karsona the usual but then asked like always, "Frrrrrom the ssssssspore, or fffffrom the ssssssunken?"

Like always, Karsona smiled and answered, "Does it really matter?"

And again like always, the old bar tender said, "Welllllllllll, the crrrrrrreep from the sssssunken is fffffffreasher."

The two gals exchanged laughs and Nyrlashia proceeded to get Karsona her favorite alcoholic beverage, refined creep mixed with ground herbs and topped off with nectar. Nyrlashia called it a Creeping Nectarini.

"Sssssssso hon, whatssssssss on your mmmmmind that would make you come out at ssssssuch a late time?" Nyrlashia asked.

"…," Karsona hesitated, "I was thinking about my future again, and what I should."

Nyrlashia knew Karsona well, "Awwww welllllll child, you ssssssshouldn't think sssssssuch depressssssssing thingssssss all the tiiiiiiiiime. And thossssssse thoughtsssssss you havvvvve alwayssssssss lead to thoughtsssss about your genderrrrrrrr."

"Yes, of course I always think about that," Karsona sipped her drink, "Like I've said before, I just want to be normal."

"Ccccccchild, you neeeeeeed not worry about yourrrrrrr purposssssssse. Patientssssssss issssss a virtue. And alsssssso ccccccchild, you are difffffferent, and you havvvvvve acccccccpeted that. But that doesssss not mean you ssssshould look at it in a bad wayyyyy? I believe that the Hivvvvve Mind sssssshall give you a purpossssssse just like evvvvveryone elsssssssse. But I believvvvvve that it sssssshall be different and special, jusssssssst assss you yourself are."

Karsona was deep within the old woman's words, never had Nyrlashia spoken like that to her.

Karsona though about her words and then said, "Thanks for the drink, Nyrlashia," Karsona reached into the pouch on her left leg, pulled out two, half-centimeter mineral cubes, and laid them on the fleshy counter.

5 minutes later, Karsona was walking through the creep coated streets of the colony… the bartender's words filling her mind. Then all of sudden, a messenger zergling came from behind her; breathing hard as he had been running a long time. He was wearing a breath tick as he gathered his stamina and spoke.

"Lady Karsona, the Hive Mind wishes to speak with you eye to eye."

"W-what?! Really? Uh… very well, I will be at the Hive Cluster Chamber as soon as possible."

Karsona then charged towards the Hive Chamber as fast as any commoner could. Once she arrived there, she was completely out of breath. And the Hive Mind was still melded up in the top of the Hive Chamber.

Then the sound of movement came as the Mind unfastened itself from the top of the Hive. It was a giant round ball at first but as it came down, while only suspended by 4 organic cords, it rolled and then opened to reveal it to be a giant eyeball.

He spoke with an enormous stereophonic voice, "Karsona, my daughter," he hesitated, "Recently I have been studying the cause behind your unreadable future, it would seem that there is a power within you, similar to the psionic powers our ancient enemies had. In my studies, I analyzed the power within you only to discover that EVERYTHING has it! All things have it, living things they have it within them, and non-living things are bound by it. What makes you so special is that it is exceptionally strong within you, and in most of our race, it is exceptionally weak. Even my powers are based off of this cosmic force."

Karsona was absolutely stunned; it was as if hundreds of years of information had just been given to her. And by the HIVE MIND no doubt! But she couldn't help but ask in his greatness.

"Great One, why would you give me this information?" she asked.

"Because Karsona, I have sensed many others who are strong in this force, which are on this planet," he paused, "and I wish that you would lead an expedition to converse with these beings."

"My lord," she paused to absorb his proposal, "I would be honored… but."

"But?" the Hive Mind was puzzled.

"I've no training of any kind! Not of a warriors, a hunters, and let alone a leaders!"

The Hive Mind gave a smile with his eye, "It is the power within you that shall be your foundation, do not worry my daughter. Go to the Spire, there tell the Overlords of my plan, and they shall settle amongst themselves how many will accompany you and how much supplies you shall take. Now go my daughter, and build the foundation that shall be our first contact."

She acknowledged him with a bow, crawled out of the Hive Chamber and preceded towards the Spire.

Once she got to the Spire and told the Overlords the plan that she was told, the High Overlords had to work out everything in their power to calm some of the Lesser Overlords down.

"This is outrageous!" a lesser one ranted, "I don't believe this underling! There is absolutely no way the Hive Mind would send her on such a crusade!"

"It matters not, even it is unbelievable, they are the Mind orders and we must follow them," said Grishnoch the Wise, a High Overlord.

"I concur," said Syrmatu the Intelligent, "We must consider the outcome of such an encounter. The Mind has his reasons and I for one believe they must be followed. And sending a commoner to represent us is a smart decision anyway. I don't think that we would want a forceful Queen or one of our warriors be a first impression, do we?"

"Well since that is settled, I think we need to take into fact that another society may be hostile," spoke up the Mutalisk and Aerial Commander Tiborsis, "I believe a minimum of 10 hunters and 5 soldiers as Karsona's bodyguards. If the contacts are not hostile, they should understand our precautions. If they are so un-compassionate and idiotic as to attack us for making that sort of precaution, then we shall devour them."

The head Overlord, Thaliskar, then spoke, "Then all is in preparation, we do not know if whether the contacts are primitive or sophisticated so Karsona should have an Aerial guard alongside her as she is escorted," the Overlords of importance all 'nodded' in agreement. "And how many should escort her while air-bound?"

"Only I shall go," Commander Tiborsis said proudly. "She will need no more than that," he added with a grin.

The trip was set, she went back to the Creep Colony home that she owned and fell asleep, tomorrow she would go with many other zerg to the location where the Mind detected aliens that were strong in a power that she was as well.

The last thought that went through her head was of how right that Nyrlashia had been.


	4. Chapter 3

**Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg**

Chapter 3

**Time period: soon after the departure of Karsona**

Kriss's alarm went off.

"Ah no," he yawned as he slowly got up. He normally doesn't have an alarm, which meant that he was being called to duty earlier than usual. Not only that, but his ENTIRE team was probably coming with him. He was too groggy to completely experience the excitement over the realization that he and his men were finally going to do something on this frozen rock.

The base's pressure sensors in his bed seemed to think that he wasn't getting up fast enough. Kriss listened as the durasteel doors of his room opened as a messenger droid came in to wake him or to brief him. Almost everyone in the base relied upon droids for jobs like this since him, his team of nine clone commandos, and a few Jedi were the only living things to be in this base – no – on this planet for more months then Kriss could remember.

"RC Helska Squad Alpha Captain 113806, designation: Kriss, you and your squad are needed in the briefing lobby. Master Rithcus has a task for your squad." Kriss thought about grabbing and crushing the droid's "head," but he knew that Rithcus wouldn't like that.

"I kinda already got that picture, clanky," he replied out of one bloodshot eye, staring at the digital clock on the droids chest which in bright red numbers read: 6:37 am.

"It is an urgent mission. Master Rithcus requested that I mention that information." The droid began to roll out, but then violently wheeled out as Kriss booted it with his un-numbed right foot.

Over the course of what seemed to him as an hour, but was probably 15 minutes, Kriss ate his breakfast rations, and began to slip into his commando gear. His eye was caught as Double, his team's arm's specialist, walked into the still opened doorway of Kriss's room, completely geared. Kriss trusted Double for two reasons. One, he didn't talk formally to Kriss. Two, he was the only one in the base who's a better sniper.

"Eh, Kriss you better hurry, Fi told me that Rithcus has already lost his patience. You may like to take you bloody sweet time but I think that's a sign that this mission might be fun after 18 months on this damned glacier."

"I hear ya Doub, but I'm sure with the General, being a Jedi and all, would understand the aggravation of not getting damn good rest."

"Well I guess that it'll be your loss then if you're late. See you in there."

Double power walked out after checking the clock on the bedside wall of Kriss's room. Kriss finished fastening on his armor and picked his DC-17 up. To keep his mind off of his fatigue as he walked down the chilled durasteel hallways, he polished the beautiful weapon. If Double was right then maybe he'd get to shoot up some clankies soon. Kriss hated having the obsession, but combat was the only thing he understood; that and the politics of slavery.

"KRISS!" His head jolted up as he walked into the lobby, slipping the saturated polishing cloth into a pack in his utility belt. He noticed that Rithcus had positively enormous bags of exhaustion hanging on and under his eye lids, which was no wonder the General wasn't in a good mood. Kriss then swore after then realizing that he forgot his helmet.

Master Rithcus's face reminded Kriss of those nasty Separatist political posters with Count Dooku. "Do you have any idea why I called you so early in the morning?!"

Kriss shook his head, trying to appear not intimidated.

The Masters face became once again serene, but still agitated. Kriss got into line as Master Rithcus began the briefing, and also swearing, realizing that he had forgotten his helmet AND his Kevlar Kilt. "Approximately 5 hours ago, after you all signed out for the night, my Padawan and I picked up an interesting reading on the long range communicator and the cheap radar we were issued."

None of his squad flinched, but Kriss knew what was going through all their heads: that bantha fodder radar WORKED?!

The Master continued, "I stayed up the entire night tracking these signals, and they are absolutely not asteroids. They're moving too slow, almost leisurely, and the communicator is picking up clicks, whistles, and other sounds that asteroids obviously don't make."

Kriss was too tired to ask for speaking privileges, "Master Rithcus, do you suggest that these are unnatural? I believe that if they were droids, our radar and communicator would be jammed, are as such the Sep's tactics when assaulting small outposts like ours. This leads me to believe that whatever we found may be biological."

Rithcus grinned, "Right! That's why I'm sending you on a reconnaissance mission. I suspected the same as you, Captain. Now… what do we ALWAYS do when we detect an unknown?"

"Scout," the squad said, their unison jumbled due to sleep deprivation.

"Good," the Jedi yawned, "and who of you is best at scouting?"

A few of the Kriss's squad mates chuckled as he raised his hand. It was a running gag at the base, ever since Kriss scouted out 2 klicks more than he needed from boredom after eating a desert mailed to him by his original Drill Sergeant.

"Well then, all of you ready for deployment. Captain, man a swoop and turn up your suit's body heater…… oh and dismissed!"

Most of Kriss's squad headed for the barracks to grab the rest of their gear, since most of them forgot to put everything on. Kriss, being the most tired, walked slowly towards the hanger.

"Hey Captain."

Kriss looked at Rithcus, "Yes General?"

Master Rithcus put a hand on his shoulder, "I've a bad feeling about this."

Kriss grinned, "You always do sir."

The Jedi gave him a friendly look, "may the Force be with you, Captain."

"Thank you… Sir."

Rithcus began to turn to sit down but then turned back to the clone, "Oh, and, please do wake me when you return," the general then yawned and lay down on the briefing table and almost immediately fell into slumber.

"Heh, sure thing Sir," Kriss began to head back towards the hanger and then stumbled towards his room, remembering he wasn't fully geared for the frozen outside, feels-like-absolute-zero weather that was the planet Helska.

***

Another reason Kriss was such a good scout was because of his exceptional command over the will of any vehicle. He could ride at top speed and still enjoy the scenery, just as he was a moment ago.

But now he was taking cover behind a small reverse fault in the glacier, listening to the chirps and whistles on his HUD that the General had described half an hour ago. He dared not risk detection as he somehow felt the air tremble as these giant creatures soared, though at a leisurely pace, above him.

His adrenaline made him forget his fatigue altogether. Even while holding his DC-17 at the ready, he still managed to type the creature's descriptions into his log, which was being beamed to base as he typed it. One of them looked like a curved worm with webbed wings while the other 3 looked more like… giant colons with buzzing wings?

At the end of his log transmission, his HUD's comlink turned on to the sound of the General's voice.

"I got your report Captain, and it's almost as chilling as this planet," he paused in case of a response, "I've only one question: do you need backup?"

Kriss thought hard. Life or honor? He was almost old enough to retire a veteran clone.

"No sir, I don't."

"Very well, continue to gain information or report back to base."

The comlink turned off. But Kriss then he realized the conversation had made him miss something. The creatures in the sky were gone. Had he been imagining it all?

"**Rrrrrrrrraaaaaak tk-tk-tk-tk lurrrrrrsk**!"

Kriss turned around to see that the worm had landed right behind him… it's "eye" was only a meter away from his face. He noticed that it flew in the sky curved because one end had a set of eyes and the other had a mouth. He had the will to notice that, but not the will to retaliate and fire. Behind it, landed on the top of the fault were the colons, except they weren't "landing" parse, they were… spitting out, defecating, or just getting SOMETHING out of their system?

"**Frrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaask larkkkkkk trk tk!**" closer inspection showed Kriss the "waste" to be more aliens. Maybe the colons were dropships of some kind? The high pitched voice of a small juvenile cath-hound sized alien clicked and chirped, which got the worm out of Kriss's face. All he could see on the sixteen aliens were the chitin plates, claws, and spikes.

The second the worm left his face, his DC-17 was up; he was the fastest draw in the base. The alien that called the worm off was smaller than all others of its type. It kind of hopped-walked a few steps then slid down the fault's slope like a child in a sled. It ended it's sliding a pace away from Kriss. He switched his DC to grenade mode because of its chitin armor.

It looked at him, tilting it's head, chirping. Right when he thought it wouldn't move, it reached it's clawed, two digit hand back behind itself into a coin purse sized bag. It pulled a finger sized maggot out and reached out to Kriss. The squirming little bug looked harmless, and for some reason, he knew that these things meant him no harm.

He lowered his rifle and took the maggot. The alien pointed at the side of it's head. Kriss assumed with disgust that he had to put it in his ear. He wasn't going to put it on in that weather, so he opened his backpack and plopped the maggot in it. He motioned with his hand for the alien to follow him. It chirped in an amused way and shook it's head. Kriss was puzzled, but then he felt something quickly slither up his back, then up his neck and into his HUD. Before he could even slightly react, he felt the maggot force itself in his ear. It was agonizing feeling his ear canal stretch as it nestled itself into his ear.

And while he was in the midst of agony, a voice spoke, "Do you understand now?"

"WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON?!"

"A-ah! I-I'm Karsona. Ambassador of the Rogue Zerg," he looked down to see the little alien speaking.

"U-um… take me to your leader?" she said.


	5. Chapter 4

**Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg**

Chapter 4

**Time period: 8 hours after RC Kriss's reconnaissance mission.**

Abdule Rithcus sat cross-legged in deep trance upon his bed. Recently he had been delving slightly into the dark side of the Force during his trances. He found it to be the only relieving feeling for him to experience on the frozen rock that is Helska.

His intentions were never for conversion from the Jedi to the dark side. He just merely enjoyed experimenting with it. All of his drowsiness seemingly faded whenever he welcomed the dark presence into his trances.

And the best part was that he never had thoughts against the Order of which he belonged. It's not like he was addicted to it or anything. He just… you know… used it to quell all discomfort whenever he got the chance. It's not like doing that was going to cause harm to his psyche.

Or would it? Whenever he wasn't in trance, he usually felt really bad; irritated at everything. Could that be an after effect of the dark side?

No, it couldn't be. Abdule was just worrying for no reason. It was probably just his lack of sleep that made him that way. It's not like the force – light or dark – could cure everything.

All of a sudden, he opened his eyes at the effect of his trance being broken by the sound of a ringing comlink. He looked over at the duristeel cabinet next to his bed, leaned over and pressed the receiver button on his comlink.

He knew who it was, "Go ahead Captain."

"Sir," it was in fact RC Captain Kriss for literally the 11th time, "The aliens that me and my squad have confined to the hanger are still insisting on speaking with the leader of the base. Are you ready yet, sir? Some of them are actually getting impatient, and even though I'm dying for fight, I think we'd all prefer it if there was no blood dra-"

"I understand Captain," Abdule sighed in irritation as he held the button down. From all the reports that Kriss sent him during his reconnaissance, he didn't like the idea of negotiation with these immensely strange aliens. It's not that he was xenophobic, he just didn't like what he heard about them being "in between small and huge size, being made mostly of teeth, claws, and blades, and showing obvious predatory characteristics".

"Captain… I'll be down shortly… try and assure them that that is the truth. We cannot afford any men being killed." Abdule for almost 4 hours had actually been mentally preparing himself to speak with these new foreigners, though all the assortments of chirps, growls, and whistles he had been hearing in the comlink's background had been giving him a physically sickening feeling. Even though he didn't want to, it was his obligation as a Republic General to negotiate with possible allies or enemies.

"Very well Sir," the comlink transmission then ended right before Abdule released the pressure on the button. He sat straight up and got out of bed like always to eliminate future back problems.

He began to slip on the rest of his Jedi robe, since during his trance he wore only the leggings of the set over his undergarments. Even though the outpost he was stationed at was on one of the most frigid planets imaginable, his room yet still somehow managed to become humid and stuffy… probably from a broken heater, or the accumulation in the air of his own sweat due to his long hours of trance and physical training; perhaps from both.

Realizing that he was going to be the first Jedi contact for a group of new foreign aliens, his pet peeve forced him to remember to look as good as possible, and give as good a first impression as possible. His minor social OCD reminded him of the mirror within his locker that he rarely used. While he finished putting on his tunic, he opened the locker and stared into the body length mirror in the back of the locker. He immediately straightened out all imperfections on his Jedi tunic and leggings right before slipping on the main entirety of the robe.

He then looked at his chin, noticing five o'clock shadow on it. He thought about shaving, but then decided against it, not wanting to keep his guests waiting any longer as he remembered their chittering over the comlink.

He inspected his short spiked hair – which was still graying a bit – and his eyes, which were partly bloodshot and had bags of pure tired hanging under them. But then he noticed something strange. The dark scar that spanned his left eye onto the bridge of his nose was gone. He was instantly confused. He could never forget his experience 13 years ago in the abandoned Sith temple on Wayland… and how he acquired his scar. He slowly touched his face with his right hand and felt the slightly warped tissue that was the scar. Why wasn't it shown in the mirror?

He then noticed in a flash that all the color in his eyes was gone and replaced just with the slightly gray, whites of the human eye. He reared back a little and opened his mouth as he saw, and could swear he felt, his veins in his head begin to pulse and throb with sickly black blood starting at his hair line and going towards the rest of his face.

He felt his body begin to chill with fear as he saw and heard his image in the mirror give a hearty chuckle. He shouted in fear as he accidentally shot his left hand up and released the dark side of the force in a forward wave that pushed him back and shattered the mirror.

He opened his eyes, not remembering hitting the ground. Glass was still hitting the ground and the bottom of the locker as his eyes moved in startled, sporadic motion trying to help his brain figure out what just happened. He quickly stood up, slightly dazed with perspiration as he quickly touched his face all around with both hands. Everything felt normal.

Then as quickly as he stood up, he crouched and grabbed with caution the largest piece of shattered mirror within arms reach. Trying not to cut his hand, he quickly pulled it with eyes view. He looked normal… scar and all. No pulsing veins, no whitened eyes, nothing out of the ordinary.

He took a few deep breaths of relief, wiped his forehead and laughed quietly a little bit. Nope, nothing was wrong. Nothing was wrong at all. Everything in the universe was just fine. There was absolutely nothing wrong with him, or his image.

Abdule then lifted his head with realization that sentient beings were waiting for him. He quickly inspected his garment and fixed all imperfections in it as quickly as possible. He walked over to his workbench and picked up his lightsaber, figuring that he might need it if the aliens turned out to be hostile.

He turned to walk out but then turned back to his workbench. He lifted his lightsaber slightly and took a decent, 30 second stare at it. He then crouched down and at a quick pace, entered the pass code to open the workbench's drawer, and pulled out a red colored lightsaber crystal. He took another long stare at it and his lightsaber.

_You know_, he though, _red is a nice color… I should change my lightsaber crystal after this. There's no harm in having color tastes that are a bit different then the rest of the Order_. He then proceeded to put the crystal into the inner pocket of his robe that was commonly used for lightsaber concealment. He strapped his saber to his belt; usually a risky move, but foreign aliens weren't going to see it as a threat since they probably hadn't encountered a Jedi. Probably. If they had, then Abdule and the clones might be in for some slightly more… aggressive… negotiations.

He then proceeded to walk out of his room to meet his guests.

*******

Abdule Rithcus entered the outpost's frosty hangar with his arms crossed in their opposite sleeves and his stride as sturdy as any Jedi on a mission. Instantly he had to keep himself disciplined and calm as he saw the strange aliens. His combat expertise made him (within 5 seconds of strides in the hangar) see and memorize his troops' positions in the hangar, the positions of the four different types of aliens, his current path and all positions in relation to the hangars' exits.

Of the four different types of aliens, three types were bigger than he was. Of the one type that was his size and smaller, there were 11 that were quadrupeds and approximately as long as Abdule was tall… all except one, which was obviously smaller then the rest of its kin, at about 3 ½ feet long. Three of the normal sized quadrupeds had insectoid-like wings as well. Each of the quadrupeds had four limbs: two front limbs along with two back legs with hinged middle joints that were in a reversed direction in relation to a human knee; such a design would suggest that they move in a hopping sort of running motion and is also the reason for why they can stand extraordinarily hunched down on just their back legs. Most of the quadrupeds' front limbs were single, sickle shaped claws, but a few others had two clawed digits. Abdule made the observation that the smallest quadruped along with one other had two clawed digits and a clawed thumb. The bodies of the quadrupeds were solid, armored carapaces with a few fleshy, unarmored parts. Within their heads was a mouthful of razor sharp teeth, though not particularly of threatening size, and protruding from their head was a large armored crest that almost spanned their entire body length. Behind their legs, a thick, bony protrusion, probably a tail, stuck out and solidly balanced the creature as it stood hunched over and crouched over its legs.

Of the other three kinds of creatures that were before him and bigger than him, the smallest of them were at least two and a half feet taller than Abdule. There were four of them and they had similar, proportionate head crests to the smaller quadrupeds. They had no legs at all, but in fact a thickened, armored, short serpentine tail to slither upon. Along with arms that were similar to the quadrupeds front limbs, the only other notable features were that they had two bottom jaws, the lowermost of the two being separate from the rest of the head except at the original point of hinged connection to the rest of the mouth. The lowermost jaw also was separated at the middle, and at the ends of each location of separation of the lowermost jaw was an organ that was obviously used for spitting poison or some other kind of fluid.

The last two kinds of alien were simply huge. They were far too big for instant and accurate measurement of size, but small enough to be easily mistaken for small starships. There were three of one kind and only one of the other. The first three were the biggest kind of alien, they were also the most simple, for they had bloated fly-like bodies with little armor. They hovered at the middle altitude of the hangar with insectoid wings that were beating faster then the eye could track and ear could hear. Their most notable features were their six, segmented and seemingly useless legs along with their two, enormous front pincher claws… though they just dangled there, making it look like the creature was too physically weak to use them as formidable weapons. And the last notable feature was their head. Their heads were simple with large, bald foreheads. But their mouths were horrendous, hanging proboscises that weren't long, but very wide and coming to a small closing point at the end.

The last creature was obviously the most dangerous. It hung from the hangar ceiling like a minnok, but it shared no other characteristics with a minnok. It was instead a huge, lean, segmented worm with a mouth at one end of it and eyes at the other. It's only noticeable teeth looked quite deadly, because they were incisors that were as long as half of Abdule's height and as thick as Abdule's thigh at their thickest. He didn't see any other dangerous characteristics of it besides its teeth and size, but he felt quite weary as he walked up the group of aliens with it watching his every move.

He was able to make all of those observations right before he stopped a meter away from the large group of quadrupeds. He saw all of the clones, which were in front of the groups as well, stand in attention and set an organized path for Abdule to walk through down to the group of quadrupeds as he made his last observations of the aliens without moving his eyes.

RC Captain Kriss stepped out of formation at the end of the clone trooper formation while removing his helm as to address Abdule clearly, though Abdule spoke before the Captain did.

"Captain, tell me now how you are able to communicate with these aliens."

Kriss looked a little surprised by Abdule's sudden order, but began to answer anyway, "Well Sir, um…" Kriss was a little hesitant.

Abdule cut in, "Captain, I did not come here expecting it to be long before I can speak with them. Tell me now."

"Well Sir, don't ask me how it happened, but when I encountered them on the field, they implanted an organic translation device within my-" Kriss looked surprised as he cut off and turned to the group of quadrupeds. It took Abdule a few seconds to realize that the smallest of the quadruped aliens was talking to Kriss. Their language was literally composed of almost nothing but clicks, whistles, chirps, and hisses, while having very few easily memorable syllables. Abdule was immediately interested in learning it, though time was of the essence.

Kriss turned back to Abdule after the alien finished talking, "Forgive me for the interruption sir, when I'm addressed, I not only hear it, but I also… um… feel it. But anyway sir, they implanted an organic device in my ear so I can understand them… though the implant is probably within my skull by now."

"Well, Captain, how do they understand you?" Abdule wanted to hurry up this conversation, but his natural curiosity usually takes hold easily.

The Captain looked truly puzzled by the question, "I… I really don't know sir."

Suddenly, a sharp whistle filled the room. Abdule looked down to see that it had come from the smallest alien quadruped, which was now at Abdule's feet, obviously to get his attention. Abdule lifted an eyebrow as it reached behind itself to one of its back legs, and took out of a small pouch a small grub of sorts and reached its three-digit hand out to him in a giving gesture. Abdule took the small worm from it and then watched as the alien pointed to the side of its head, obviously an instruction though body language meaning for Abdule to put the grub in his ear. He did as was "told", and squinted in discomfort as the worm burrowed painfully into his ear canal.

"Do you understand now?" Abdule didn't need to look down again to know that the small, feminine voice was emanating from the alien at his feet.

"Yes, I do. Not to be too unwelcoming, but who are you and your… companions?"

"Well, my name is Karsona, Ambassador of the Rogue Zerg. And well, these ones behind me are my escort is all… I hope their presence does not upset you."

About thirty seven questions ran through Abdule's head, but he refrained himself from asking, since he was just now coming to the conclusion that his next few words would most likely be mentioned in historic text generations from now… he had to choose them carefully.

"And I am Jedi Master Abdule Rithcus of the Galactic Republic. Neither I nor my troops are offended. This must be your first encounter with anyone who speaks for the Republic, so I can only assume that you had to take extra precautions in case of hostility. Consider me for the next few hours as an emissary for two of the largest powers within the galaxy," Abdule realized that he was missing tact from his tone of voice, so he immediately added it, "Please, come inside, I'm sure it must be uncomfortable in here… though I don't know if all of you can fit deeper inside this… outpost."

Rather then hearing an audible voice from the giant boated fly like creatures, he felt a deep telepathic voice from one of them, "Do not worry yourself about us larger zerg, we are only here as advisors to the ambassador, and do not to need to accompany her to be able to communicate. And Commander Tiborsis does not need to accompany her either to be able to protect her." Abdule winced at the realization that this "Commander" was probably the enormous winged worm that was hanging from the hangar's ceiling.

"Well then if all you...." Abdule was overwhelmingly lost for words at that point, so he gestured with his hands at the groups of aliens that would fit within the base, "may come with me and we shall converse in a more comfortable environment."

As Abdule turned around and as he led 16 aliens and a squad of clones into the base, he grieved within his head at the fact that he had almost no experience with situations of this kind. Not only was the fate of future relations with these creatures put into his hands, there was an immense uneasy feeling Abdule was getting from them. It was also a familiar feeling, he just couldn't put his finger on what it really was.

As they entered the large hallway, Abdule wondered how these aliens commonly relaxed. For most normal humanoids, sitting in a comfy chair before conversing could easily suffice in this situation… but not one of these beings were even remotely humanoid, and the lobby of which they were headed was almost completely dull except for the fourteen moderately good chairs that encompassed the large meeting table. Perhaps he could ask? After all, he was an adult and Jedi, why let cultural differences embarrass him?

Tilting his head to look at the ambassador while thinking on his toes, he remembered a tactful comment he had heard many times before, "So, can I get you anything that will make your stay more comfortable?"

"Um…" the little alien ambassador hesitated. Abdule was partly relieved as he felt a kindred spirit of recognizable emotions coming from it, "No thank you."

One of the large, serpent-like zerg bent down as it slithered and whispered something to the ambassador that Abdule could not hear. He felt a bit suspicious as the ambassador then nodded in response, but said nothing.

As they entered the lobby, Abdule gave the clone RCs hand signals of where they should stand guard. He then proceeded, feeling a little odd, to pull out a chair on the side of the table facing the door they entered and gesture to the ambassador that it was welcome to sit in it. As it puzzlingly walked over and hopped into the chair, he walked around and sat at the chair directly across from the ambassador. The other quadruped with three digit hands then made a few of it's own hand signals to the alien escort, which then proceeded to form its own formations that Abdule carefully analyzed.

Abdule then successfully tried with all his might to remember the ambassador's name, "So Karsona, what brings you here on this chilly day."

Karsona looked a bit surprised and panicked as it obviously looked for words, "Um, well… Master…" Abdule was slightly amused that she had forgot his name just like he had hers, "Rithcus, I am a part of a swa… um, race of beings that call themselves the Rogue Zerg. We come in peace, for this is our race's first contact with other sentient life."

As Abdule listened carefully, he then finally finished formulating the perfect plan of communication, "Please forgive my bluntness, but this Republic outpost was designed for purely military operations, so if you would be so obligated to allow me to talk to you in a way more familiar to my experiences, I'd greatly appreciate it."

Abdule finished memorize the zerg facial expressions as Karsona's bright red eyes widened, "Well… I myself am not that experienced with negotiations such as this, so if at least one of us is comfortable, I'm sure we could get somewhere much faster."

Abdule smiled, "Well then, seeing as how you are completely unknown to the rest of the Republic, protocol leads me to treat your presence as a violation of Republic military space. So if you would please answer my following questions, I will most likely be able to eventually consider you not a threat and not in violation of Republic military space."

Karsona looked a bit taken aback and nervous, but it then looked back at its escort. Two of them gave a hiss and Karsona turned back around, "I would be happy to follow your protocol and answer some questions."

Abdule knew exactly what he was going to ask from this point on, "You say you are of the Rogue Zerg. Where does your home reside?"

"On the other side of this planet," it replied.

Abdule razed an eyebrow, "Hmm… how long has your race been on this planet?" He didn't understand how this alien race could have possibly evaded the Republic if they had been here for a long time.

"About 3 of this planet's years," Abdule wasn't surprised. It only made sense that they only got here relatively recently.

"So you arrived here. How did that come about?"

Karsona paused a bit before replying, "I don't know all of the specifics, but our race was traveling the stars previous to our arrival on this planet. I do not know exactly how long we were traveling or where exactly we came from originally though."

Abdule was getting more interested, "And what are your race's intentions on this planet?"

The ambassador took a very long pause this time, which flat out said to Abdule that it was hiding something. He also felt the telepathic presence of the large bloated creatures that were still in the hangar, which probably meant that the ambassador was being carefully fed information from them. If the ambassador did lie, he will allow it, since he wouldl just use the Force later to extract the necessary information, "To live and let live," it finally said, "That is all."

"I see… so what government operates your society?" Abdule was pessimistically suspecting that it was based on a chain of slavery laws since there were so many different aliens.

Karsona looked about a bit in thought, "I… don't understand the question that well. But I think the best answer I can give is that we… we are a swarm. A, uh, brood. A hive."

Abdule after that point was completely fascinated. He continued his chain of questions about the ambassador's race, religion, and variation. The ambassador wasn't very specific about everything, but specific enough for Abdule to be interested. He took great interest in finding out the genomes of her escort and that Karsona itself was of a specific genome called zerglings. Though Karsona couldn't tell him why there were so many kind of zerg, he couldn't help but imagine what amazing thing bonded the various zerg genomes together.

Then he had an epiphany. What if it was the Force that bonded them together? He hadn't tried to sense the Force around these creatures yet. If they were literally a race of variation that was bonded together by the Force, then they just might be one of most powerful Force sensitive races in existence! The Force bonds everything together slightly, but for it to bond different creatures together into a single race!? The Jedi Council would be amazed if such was the case.

But Abdule wasn't going to get his hopes up before he actually tested such a theory. After Karsona finished answering all of the questions that he needed to judge them as not a threat, he decided to ask a few extra questions without telling it.

"So how did your leader know of the presence of this outpost?"

"The Hive Mind sensed you a long time ago – perhaps when we first arrived here - though he didn't know what to make of you. After rigorous study, he finally came to the conclusion that you are strong in energies that govern the universe, and not only that, but energies that are similar to what our own race generate within us."

It made sense. The Force flows through everything. Even though he and his troops arrived here only 3 of this planet's months ago, Abdule wondered why their Hive Mind – a being described to have immense power – would take so long to analyze the Force that flows through Abdule and the clones. He then asked exactly that.

Karsona looked puzzled by the question at first but then replied strongly, "Why, please do not get confused Master Rithcus. The 'you' I was referring to was not everyone in this base, but was referring directly to **you**," Abdule's jaw practically dropped open.

If their Hive Mind had spent such a long time analyzing specifically Abdule, then were these energies that the ambassador was referring to really the Force?! Maybe the Mind was not actually powerful enough to sense the Force in normal living beings like the clone then… wait, no, that couldn't be it. According to Karsona, the Mind could sense these specific energies within his own children, and sensing the Force was not limited by distance.

Abdule gasped quietly out loud. What if what the Mind was sensing was not the Force, but something more specific? What if…

Abdule then asked the ambassador if it would give him a few moments of thought. After Karsona agreed to let him, he then let his mind open and expand. He opened his senses to the Force, and expanded his sight beyond just light. But almost immediately after doing so he lost all coherent thought to panic.

He was instantly overwhelmed with the immense presence of the _dark side of the Force_.

He began to turn his head frantically, trying to find a direction it wasn't coming from. He quickly found out that it was plowing at his mind from every angle but behind, only because there was not a single zerg standing right behind him. With all of his willpower, he struggled to withdraw his senses from the Force and not make any bigger of a scene… though his incoherent, frantic, jabbering pleas and quick sitting motions had probably made the biggest possible scene already.

With one large final shunt, he pulled himself from the brink of nearly complete darkness. He opened his eyes wide to see if anything had transpired while he had been engulfed in the maw of madness. With his hands flat against the table and as sweat seemingly poured from his skin, he watched as everyone in the room stood still. Ambassador Karsona must have gotten out of its chair while he was escaping insanity, for it was huddled behind a hydralisk bodyguard. Abdule wasn't quite as frantic as moments ago when he was praying for a quick death, but he was certainly frantic in a… slightly lesser sense.

He shot up out of his chair and spoke as he sporadically walked around the table, towards the exit that lead to his room, and gave hand signal commands to the clones that told them to follow him, "Um… well… I-I hate to end this meeting so soon but it seems that I, well… best be… attending to another matter at hand. I'll… ah… leave all of you guests here for a few minutes while I… attend to a short matter…"

His thoughts were ricocheting like crazy as he and the troops went down the small hallway and trying to avoid eye contact with the zerg altogether. The energy they sensed had been the dark side of the Force?! Those shadowy abominations dared lump him into such a group of monsters like themselves?! It wasn't possible. It couldn't be. They were practically overflowing with evil. And he wasn't using the dark side that much. He had control over it. CONTROL, DAMMIT! Why did they come here? They must have come to take control of the Republic during it's time of weakness during the Clone War. Yes, that was it. What other reason could such maddening creatures have for landing in a life abundant galaxy after traveling so far?! None other! Abdule was sure. Oh, but he wasn't worried… oh no he wasn't. He was going to quell their contact. He was going to make sure that at least all of the abominations in this base weren't going to leave it alive.

Abdule exited to into the base's main hallway with the troopers right behind him. As the clone's followed him down the main hallway, Captain Kriss walked out ahead and beside Abdule.

In a quick and slightly puzzled tone he asked, "Sir, what is going on?"

"Seal up the base and gain yourselves the most powerful combat advantage possible from in between wherever you are and the hangar. Captain, for the time being, I put all combat specifics and command into your hands to carry out that order, I have to attend to a slight matter at hand before I meet you in the hangar."

Kriss startlingly asked, "Sir! What in the bloody hell is this all about?!"

Abdule then lost all patience in his troops; he didn't want to give them any more orders after this. He stopped himself and his clones dead in their tracks, turned around and then in a scowling, fury filled voice said _**"We're going to kill them all. And then get as far away from the frozen rock as possible."**_

Abdule's last thought before storming off toward his room was of how ludicrous it was for these creatures – these Rogue Zerg – to think of him as being as disgusting and abominable as they. They were forces of darkness! And from this day, he would be remembered as a champion of the Jedi!


	6. Chapter 5

**Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg**

Chapter 5

**Warning: Lockdown is commencing. Please refrain from attempting the usage of exits at this time. Thank you.**

Hunter party leader Hiktic was absolutely panicked and furious. It seemed like only a second ago, he was in this outpost's hangar mouthing off impatiently to some Republic troops in an attempt to make their leader appear faster. So their leader arrived fashionable late to finally bring him, Karsona, and the 14 other zerg that were under his command inside his base to talk. Then all of a sudden when everything seemed fine, the Republic officer goes crazy, walked out of the room with all of his troopers, and decided to lockdown the base. So yes, now a new bloody thing that Hiktic has to deal with. Even with 5 hydralisks and 9 other combat ready zerglings at hand, getting out of this foreign metal box of a base was proving difficult. And not just that, but he and his zerg also have to make sure that Karsona doesn't get killed.

"DAMN IT ALL!" he yelled as once again his recently sharpened claw failed at cutting into the metal door that separated all the zerg in this room from the rest of base, "This metal is much too thick to cut through." His gaze turned to the other hunters. In the room, there were three doors: one that lead to the hangar, one that the Republic scum left through, and one that has an unknown path. Three other zerglings were trying to cut down the hangar door with him, the hydralisks were trying to break down the exit door by ramming into it, and the last six zerglings were also trying to cut down the unknown door. He took a few steps back and thought about what more could be done while also examining everything in the room. He could barely concentrate over the sound of the chattering hunters and the feeling of rage flowing through his blood.

The telepathic voice of Overlord Ruktis then echoed into the heads of everyone in the room, "Do not panic, any of you. I'm absolutely sure that if you all stay calm and muster the intellect to do so, you'll be able to escape." Hiktic couldn't help himself, "Why in the flaming world would these Republicans turn on us all of a sudden?!" he thought back. This time, Overlord Nibloth responded relatively coldly, "It is not the Republic at fault. We just so happened to unluckily come in contact with a maddened Republic officer who is psionically strong. I can feel his presence even from inside the hangar, and it is one that is immensely coated with the psionic energies that connects all us zerg together."

Hiktic was stunned. "How is that possible?!"

"That I cannot answer; perhaps his religion has trained him to be strong in psionics, but once again, it is truly unknown to me. The only thing you need to keep at mind at all times is that you must not engage him. Judging by the psionic presence he is emanating, I can roughly presume because of my education that he has been driven mad by the same dark energy that our ancestors used… the same energy that caused our ancestor Zasz as well as all other zerg at the time to be ruthless killing machines."

At that point, all the zerg in the room had halted all movement. Every zerg alive knew the story of Zasz. And even though the story had been more light-heartedly told to everyone from birth, they all knew the truth behind it. The disgusting truth was that there was a massive history of evil deeds caused by the Zerg Swarm in the times before the Rogue Zerg's separation from Zasz.

Hiktic knew that he had to work and think fast. He ordered the hydralisks at the exit door to step aside. After they did so, Hiktic fastened his ear canal to the door and tapped in various places. He found the door to be actually thinner than he expected, which mean that the metal must be relatively strong by itself. He did the same thickness test with the other two doors and found them to be the same as the first. He stepped back, thought hard, and then had an idea. He turned to a hydralisk, "I'm not one of you, so I must ask. That acidic liquid you use to project your spines… can you excrete it by itself?" The hydralisk quickly confirmed his assumption to be true. Hiktic smiled, "Then try and see if you can melt this metal with it. If you can, then melt or soften the edges of the doors so we can knock them down easily."

He knew that everyone was going to be fine from that point. No puny humanoid could withstand the might of a force that has been trained by the Rogue Zerg! Even though he took to heart what Overlord Nibloth said about the officer Abdule Rithcus, with Hiktic's leadership experience, he was going to make sure that not a single zerg in this building died.

While he waited for the hydralisks to work their magic, he walked over to Karsona, who was cowering in fear on the other side of the room's large table. Before he approached within her sight, he quickly injected himself with a hormonal depressing reagent, and then walked over and sat right next to her. He could see by looking at her that she was scared out of her mind, though seemingly tried not to show it clearly in an attempt to be brave.

Her eyes fluttered over in Hiktic's direction, "I'm scared."

"Don't you worry, we'll all get out of this alive," he reassured her, "All of us here have dealt with tougher things."

He watched as she clenched her razor sharp teeth, "I'm just… so tired of… being the one who always messes everything up," she just barely managed to choke up before slouching down and breaking into tears.

Hiktic gaped and then whispered, "What? Hey, hey… it's not your fault. You heard what the Overlords said…," he took his claw and stroked her crest reassuringly.

"Don't you understand?!" she snapped and shoved Hiktic's claw off of her crest and looked at him with a solid gaze, "Look at me and tell me, out of all of the zerg in this room, who are the ones who are actually able to do something useful?"

Hiktic leaned back up and fell silent.

She then looked away from him, "That's what I thought."

"Karsona, it isn't your fault," her attitude was beginning to annoy him. Even though he didn't want to be mean, she was being irrational. Her emotions might put the party at risk, "Nothing that has ever happened to you is your fault, and if you weren't so pessimistic all the time about it, you'd know it."

Karsona began to reply, but then fell silent. Hiktic began to stand back up, "Now if you're done skulking over the irrelevant, then I believe it's time we get going." He stood in place next to her for a few moments, waiting for a reply. But she didn't even stir. He then started walking around the table to his troops but then turned back to her, "The Hive Mind sent you here for a reason," she quickly looked up startlingly, "He could have sent any civilian here, but no, you think he sent the only civilian with no training here on accident?" She looked partially awed and surprised.

"And you know why? It's because you _are_ useful."

He turned back around and walked past the table and to his troops right as the door leading to the hangar fell and hit the metallic hallway floor with a loud bang.

*******

Kriss stormed around the base's control room in a frenzy. For Master Rithcus to drop the entire responsibility of commanding the entire squad was a bother. They all might be RCs, but they only had the formal training of RCs and none of them had seen any action, unlike Kriss.

He had decided to break the ten other squad members into two teams of five that he was going to guide to the hangar through the control room. His intentions weren't to kill the zerg, but to instead get the teams safely to the hangar and kill the zerg only if necessary. In a way, he was disregarding his orders to kill them first and then go to the hangar to meet Master Rithcus. But what Rithcus didn't know was that it was clone protocol to disregard orders from a Jedi if the orders were contradictory to the Republic's goals. And even though he didn't technically have that much leeway to follow that protocol since it was written by the Jedi and therefore the Jedi were the ones who were supposed to interpret it (meaning if Master Rithcus was in fact not insane at this moment and instead right to order the zerg's deaths), then Kriss could be discharged from duty for mutiny.

He didn't care; he wasn't going to get his troops killed. Master Rithcus may have thought that these zerg could be killed easily, but there was a high chance that they could _not_. The reason behind that was the fact that Kriss and the squad didn't have any combat statistics on the Zerg whatsoever. So not only were the clones outnumbered, but they might possibly be outgunned as well.

"You know, you are quite the strangest being of them all," a voice came from absolute nowhere.

Kriss startlingly took his hands off a control panel and looked quickly around every corner of the room to see who had spoken to him, but he saw no one, "Where are you, coward!?"

"Oh please, I'm a coward? Even though you're the one confined to the safety of a sealed room?"

"Where the bloody hell are you?!"

"Why, I'm in the hangar. Or did you not know that we Overlords have such long distance telepathy? But in any case, I couldn't help but oversee your strange mental aura of emotion. It's strange, but interesting. It's too bad that I never studied mind reading strategies, or I could have found out what you are doing cramped up in that room."

Kriss gaped at realization of what was going on and his helpless inability to keep the voice out of his head. He then slowed his breathing into a calming state, and began to walk over to the camera controls to see where the squads were. He was hoping the voice of the Overlord would just go away and not distract him anymore.

He spoke into the comlink in his HUD, "Okay Doub, you and team one are approaching the armory, if you can secure all the arms in that area and then completely lock it down, we won't have to worry about the Zerg reaching it and taking advantage of that area."

"Roger that, Kriss," Double replied. Kriss then unlocked the doors in most of the southern hallways to let team one get through more easily to the armory.

"Oh how pitiful, it seems you have already forgotten that I'm still here," the Overlord practically whispered.

Kriss froze solid. It just heard what he said to Double?! How was that possible?! He felt sick with anxiety as he thought of what that could mean.

"You know, the Hive Mind sent me, High Overlord Syrmatu the Intelligent, for a reason. I think I'll tell you why, since I doubt that you'll live much longer after this. I do not excel at mind reading as an extension of my psionic power, but what I do excel at is mind _control_."

Kriss's eyes widened as he quickly spoke into the HUD, "DOUBLE! Get your team ou-" Kriss was then cut off as he felt his mouth stop in mid sentence, unable to move. He then watched in horror as his hands, against his own will, lifted itself towards the computer's comlink and his HUD, grabbed the communications controls on both, and easily crushed them with his strength. "I'm sorry little one, but it seems you have only been trained to fight a physical battle, not a mental one," Kriss then felt a splitting pain run down from his head, all the way through his spinal cord. His body didn't move in response to it though, but instead, he felt his consciousness recede to the back of his mind.

He watched as all of his actions were completely taken control of; his mouth even spoke out loud under Syrmatu's control, "Now, I've been watching you through your own eyes recently and I witnessed you using this control right here to influence the doors. Noooow… let's see what I can do to completely jeopardize your tactical advantage.

Kriss then watched as the Overlord cackled and proceeded to sabotage the lockdown system.

*******

"Kriss, come in. Come in. Can you hear me, roger, roger… blast!" Double repeatedly tapped his HUD's comlink transmitter, "Can any of you get a signal?" he gestured to the rest of the team.

"Na, Doub, none of us can, but our signals to team two are just fine. It's just the connection to the control room that is broken," one of them replied.

"Dammit," Double muttered to himself. If something had happened to Kriss, then they had just lost their best combat advantage. Now not only would both teams have to lead themselves, but now they wouldn't know the location of the Zerg.

Suddenly, one of the lockdown doors that had been unlocked moments ago closed quickly, separating two team members from him and the other three. Double stood up, rushed over, and hammered on it. It wouldn't even budge, so he tried contacting them on the comlink. He got nothing but static. But then in the process, he realized that the comlink transmission to all of the squad had been broken. He turned to the other two troopers that were left and since he couldn't talk to them, he signaled them to follow. Phase one of Kriss's plan was over. Double had no long range communications and no statistics on the Zerg's location. He was going to try and make sure that the troopers that he was leading got safely to the hangar. No acquiring of extra arms, no pit stops, not anything. They were going to the hangar, and if anyone tried to stop him, he wouldn't hesitate to open fire.

He gave hand signals to the other two to follow in a specific formation, and then led them down the only available hallway.

*******

Thurk slithered right next to hunter party leader Hiktic and right in front of Ambassador Karsona as the entire hunter party of zerg moved at a swift-but-comfortable pace down the hallway. At a moments notice, he was ready to fire his spines at anyone who stood in their way. Though they didn't quite know where they were going, Overlord Ruktis was leading them around the lockdown in the fastest possible path to the hangar. The only problem was that because of so many inaccessible hallways, this path forced them to run around most the base. At the moment, they were heading to the southern part of the base, which was actually in the opposite direction of the hangar, but was unfortunately the fastest way to the hangar.

The voice of Ruktis filled all of the zerg's heads, "You all should be arriving near the entrance to a large room that will be adjacent to the next turn coming up. Syrmatu is attempting to open the next two locked doors: the one right ahead of you and the one that comes after the next turn."

Thurk himself was actually the most powerful hydralisk in the party, for his expertise had nearly given him a high enough status to become a lurker. It was mostly because his ambush tactics were finely tuned; his hearing was excellent, practically bordering on being able to sense all vibrations. So as the party approached the next locked door, Thurk focused on the door, like he did with any prey that he sensed. He did this because a few of the lockdown doors the party encountered weren't as sturdy as others, and could be broken down with a few steady running charges. So if High Overlord Syrmatu couldn't open it before the party arrived at it, Thurk was going to break it down to save time.

But as they bridged the gap between them and the door, Thurk didn't see, but heard movement from behind the door. He began to quickly think of what it could possibly be. He came to only one logical conclusion of what could be behind it. The rest of the party was slowing down, since it seemed like the door wasn't about to open, but Thurk didn't. He kept slithering, listening intently on all movement that was behind the door. "Hey! Hydralisk! What are you doing?" Thurk heard the voice of Hiktic behind him as he advanced. The sounds he heard behind the door sounded like the movement from two life forms. One was on the door's far left and the other was in the middle. And then Thurk heard a beeping noise coming from the far left life form. He instantly remembered that next to each lockdown door they passed, there was a small console of sorts on one side or another.

The door then quickly swung open to reveal two Republic troops behind it, and behind them, a door to the large room that the Overlord had spoken about as well as the left turn at a corner. He heard the party behind him all of a sudden begin to move around in surprise. Thurk was only 20 feet from the troopers, so he gave a hissing roar with his raspy, hydralisk voice and charged with all the strength his tail could muster. He stretched out his left arm as he charged straight into the trooper in the middle of the hallway so that he also struck the trooper on the left who had opened the door. His momentum and bulk sent the trooper he smashed into plummeting backwards until he slammed into the corner. He then spat a readied spine at the right leg of the trooper he had scraped with his claw. The trooper fell to his knee as Thurk's spine logged itself in his thigh and began to dissolve his tissue.

Thurk turned around and yelled at the party, "Go around without me! I'll hold these two off!"

He caught a quick glance of Hiktic nodding as the party quickly charged around Thurk and the corner in which they rocketed down the hallway to get away as quickly as possible. The trooper at the corner of the room quickly drew his weapon and fired only a few shots of bright blue light at the party before Thurk rapidly fired two spines at him. One of them hit and knocked his weapon out of his hand, and the other hit and nailed his wrist to the wall. As that trooper screamed in pain, Thurk felt his shoulder and upper crest get hit by an immensely painful blast of heat from the weapon of the trooper right next to him. He turned, and before the trooper fired again, Thurk spat a spine into the barrel of the weapon which made it too damaged to fire. The trooper dropped the broken weapon while standing up quickly, despite his injured and melting right leg, and swiftly drew a similar but smaller, hand-sized weapon, only to have it knocked out of his hand by Thurk's claw.

Thurk then heard something eject from the trooper's right bracer as he coiled back for an underhand punch at Thurk's head. The trooper's counterattack missed as Thurk quickly reared back onto his tail, which increased his height to a point where he almost touched the hallway's ceiling. Because Thurk was taller and in melee range of the trooper, he looked down and shot a spine into the top of the trooper's head. The trooper went limp and fell to the floor immediately after. Without looking, Thurk heard the trooper in the corner swiftly muster the strength to unfasten his hand from the wall, get up, eject a punching dagger from both bracers, and charge at Thurk. After the dead trooper hit the ground, in one swift motion, Thurk reared back down to a normal height, solidly stuck his claws into the ground, and whipped his tail around just in time to trip the charging trooper. The trooper's charge had gained himself enough momentum to plummet thirty feet away from Thurk after tripping.

A few months ago, Thurk had grown himself a useful set of opposable thumbs in the evolution chamber back home, so he had not too much trouble picking up the body of the dead trooper and hurling it at the still living trooper. The giant weight of dying, melting flesh and plastic armor landed on its target right square on the chest. The supposedly living trooper didn't attempt to lift the corpse up off of him as Thurk slithered over to him at a leisurely pace. Thurk looked down at the still barely breathing trooper; he could just taste the fear emanating from him. Thurk then made a snap decision. If this trooper had fought him only because of orders, then he would be grateful for Thurk to do this, but if he had fought Thurk for personal or sadistic reasons, then the trooper would suffer deliciously.

Thurk reached behind himself into a small pouch he had hanging from his organically plated backside and pulled out an injection parasite that had a liquid solution in it. Recently, not to long before he was chosen to be a part of this expedition, some drone scientists back at the Hive asked him to test some of their concoctions on creatures he encountered on missions or hunts. So here he was, about to inject what was supposedly a solution with a virus into this barely living soul. The drones had told Thurk that this particular solution would spread "our race's essence" into the body of the subject.

Thurk placed the parasite on the trooper. It scurried over to a weak part of armor on the trooper's neck and injected its needle-like proboscis into his neck. After it emptied its fluid into the trooper, Thurk picked the dead body up off of the trooper and laid it next to the living trooper. Thurk pulled out another filled parasite with a different kind of solution and did the same to the dead one as he did to the living trooper. Thurk then slithered off around the corner and considered chasing after the party, but then glanced at the opened door to the large room the Overlord spoke of. He slithered into the room and examined it. It was completely dull, except that it was completely filling with containers, storage wracks, and selves that all had Republic trooper weapons in or on them.

Thurk hissed in delight, "I wonder what I could _possibly_ do with all of this?"


	7. Chapter 6

**Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg**

Chapter 6

**Time Period: 30 minutes after lockdown activation**

Tiborsis had always thought of himself as being a very special mutalisk. For one thing, after he was born he had decided to invest study into the usage of psionics alongside the huge amount of training for the inheritance of the Aerial Commander title. A psionically educated mutalisk had never existed before among the Rogue Zerg, so what Tiborsis accomplished was an achievement for his race in the first place.

So not only was his education high, but all the training he did amounted to more than the training of his peers, because who of all the mutalisks was chosen to inherit one of the highest privileges in Rogue Zerg society? He was. And all because he was the strongest and brightest.

And he admitted that he did let his arrogance get to his head. But he was absolutely sure that Karsona's aerial guard needed no one else. He was even sure of himself as he psionically tracked the Republic general's movements in the base. The general was strong, very strong; both psionically and physically. But it was no matter to Tiborsis as he hung from the enemy hangar ceiling. He knew that once the general arrived at this hangar, he'd be in for a fight. Because even after analyzing the immense strength that the general had, Tiborsis knew that he was STILL more powerful then the general.

"Your pride isn't going to keep us Overlords from helping you fight the General," Tiborsis felt the thought of Nibloth.

Tiborsis decided to speak with his mouth instead of his recently learned telepathy to remind the lesser Overlord who the commanding officer was in this conversation, "Of course, I'd expect nothing less from you. But I'll say just like earlier that I don't need any help. But since you keep insisting, I'll let you help, and then kill you when we get back to the Hive Cluster for interfering."

Even though Tiborsis outranked most lesser Overlords, his threats towards older Overlords like Nibloth usually didn't work, "I'll be one loss as opposed to four losses of everyone in here if I help," Nibloth snapped back, "Your pride isn't necessarily worth the lives of four zerg." It was just like an elder to not care if Tiborsis was bluffing about killing him or not.

He didn't care for the Overlords help. He was getting too excited about fighting someone on his level. Or, at least Tiborsis hoped that the Republic general was at his level. If he was, then this next battle would be one of the most delightful things Tiborsis would ever do in his entire life.

"The general approaches," Tiborsis telepathically whispered excitedly to the Overlords as he sensed the immense dark, psionic presence slowly creep closer to the hangar. Even though he almost fell off of the ceiling for doing so, Tiborsis couldn't help but grin with his ceiling clung mouth in ecstasy.

Gent opened his eyes with surprise. Had he survived that fight with that alien? Had he? He must have if he was breathing and looking at the hallway ceiling. A voice in the back of his head quietly whispered for him to stand up, and he followed suit. He was a bit confused as to why he had to claw out of a transparent, fluid filled sac before he could stand up and out of it, but he was wondering more as to why he was alive. But he almost immediately got his answer as the voice in the back of his head quietly mentioned that Gent had been given new life. He was satisfied with the answer. New life, eh? What was this, some new Republic military project?

Gent wished he could take his helmet off as he scratched his head puzzlingly with his left shoulder claw. He looked around his surroundings as he shook fluid from his legs. He had been lying in his sac not too far away from a left turn in the hallway. Right after the corner, there was the open door to the secondary armory. But Gent immediately began to panic as he noticed a shadow of movement from inside the armory. He quickly broke into a sprint on all four of his normal limbs towards the entrance to the armory. He could just barely stop his momentum as he skidded into the armory, only to see the backside of the horror he had fought what seemed like only a minute ago. A quarter of the stored weapons had been taken from their original places and scattered around the ground, and Gent noticed as he stood up and as the beast turned around that it was holding a DC-17 awkwardly in one claw, and a particularly large beetle in the other.

It hissed in happy acknowledgement to Gent, "I see, so you've finally awoken have you? Those drones are geniuses, eh?"

Gent waved his shoulder claws in an exasperated motion and growled with his vocal sac, "ABOMINATION! What do you think you're doing in here?" he began to break into a charge at the thing, but then was instantaneously soothed to a stop as the voice in the back of his head whispered that the being before him was a friend.

The hydralisk gave a rasping chuckle, "You startled me there for a second. From what I've read about infested humanoids, you would've blown yourself up to take me down with you. But apparently the mixture has made you somewhat loyal."

Gent ignored what the hydralisk was talking about and spoke in a normal tone, "Wha… what the bloody hell are you doing in here?"

The hydralisk reached behind itself to a pile of unseen weapons, picked one up and showed it to Gent. The DC-17 had had a seed of life put within it, for there was an organism sprouted out from within it, making the blaster more then just a piece of equipment. As Gent looked at it, he couldn't help but marvel in such living beauty as the voice in the back of his head whispered lovely things about the miracle of life.

"If you're confused, my name is Thurk, and you are my servant," Gent could've guessed as much because he felt a connection of servitude to the hydralisk after spending a minute inhaling its pheromones. And even though the voice in the back of his head advised against it Gent couldn't help but ask, "What… what has become of the body of my brother, my lord?" at first, Thurk looked puzzled, but then took a breath of realization as to what Gent was talking about.

"No need to worry, he's right here," Thurk unhooked a moderate sized fleshy bag from his side and carefully dumped it's contents onto the armory floor. Inside it were two adorable, new born broodlings! Each was the size of Gents head, which made them even cuter to look at. He couldn't help but smile and coo a little bit as they scampered around blindly. Thurk continued, "They're blind right now, but in a little while, they'll be half your size."

Gent didn't care; his squad mate would have appreciated any rebirth like this. Not exactly the classic Mandalorian dream of death like their sergeant had planned for them, but this was an honor for both Gent and his squad mate to fight even more for the Republic! But then Gent froze in contempt, realizing that his orders given by Jedi Master Rithcus were to kill the zerg. Thurk was his enemy. But why? He didn't feel like an enemy at; he felt more like a squad Captain; a kindred spirit. But that was a ridiculous thing to think, Master Rithcus's orders were absolute.

He put down one of the broodlings, and slowly, trying to not give away his intentions, stood up while Thurk tampered with another DC-17. Against the will of the voice in the back of his head, he quickly as possible lashed out with his right shoulder claw. But the claw froze before it could jam itself into Thurk's eye. With a cold sweat, Gent could barely keep himself from shouting at it to move, wondering frantically why his muscles had locked up and now weren't responding.

Thurk didn't move his head; he just turned both eyes to Gent, and then after half a minute of staring, gave a gleeful, almost maddening smile, "The drones really _are_ geniuses. Heh, give it up, wretch; you're a part of the Swarm now. There's nothing you can do against us, so you might as well give up and accept the fact that I generously gave you life at the cost of your appearance and some of your will. Even if you could rejoin your comrades, would it be worth it? You're a monster now, you'd be hunted, persecuted, and spat upon. Your purpose as a trooper of the Republic ended after I killed you and made you into a phoenix," Thurk relaxed his smile a little bit as Gent relaxed his want to kill and began to despair, "But if it makes you feel better, you're a completely different being now, so what you did in your past life doesn't matter. You fulfilled your first purpose, and now it's time for you to fulfill your next."

Gent let the soothing voice in the back of his head relax his shoulder claw completely and drop to the ground. Gent dropped with it to his knees in despair. Millions of questions with no answers were racing through his head as he wished for his former ability to cry. He was disgusted at it all. But the more he thought about it, the more he knew he had to accept this unexpected addition to his life.

He shifted onto one knee, "What are your commands, Hunter Thurk?"

Gent heard Thurk hoist an infested blaster rifle over his shoulder and speak with relative satisfaction.

"That's better," Thurk muttered to Gent before giving orders.

While leading the rest of his squad to the hangar, Double and what remained of group one was able to catch up with group two. As it turned out, they had had their comlink transmission cut shortly after Double's team had. It was disturbing. The only explanation was that the enemy had gotten some sort of tactical advantage over the rest of them by either controlling the base security, or killing Kriss. It was clone protocol to take a situation like this in the worst possible way.

So assuming that Kriss was dead and Master Rithcus completely insane, and because he was Vice-Captain already, Double temporarily promoted himself to Captain of the squad. His first order was to abandon all previous orders and focus on sticking together and finding their way back to the hangar at all costs.

As they continued winding in an around numerous hallways, Double began to recognize the path slightly until they came upon a larger, and more familiar hallway. Double took solace in the fact that this hallway that they were moving through now wasn't booby trapped. Not a single turret and not a single bomb. Not a single mutilating thing. He knew, since he and Gent installed all the traps and Tero installed all the electronic defenses within the base.

But then, a few more minutes down the hallways, Double finally reached a realization: these halls weren't booby trapped in any way because they were meant for civilian passage. Why? Because they were moving through one of three main hallways which lead into the hangar lobby. The hangar lobby had an extremely hard lockdown system to bypass and activate, and is only activated on level 2 emergency lockdowns, which Kriss didn't initiate.

That's the reason there were no lockdown doors in this hallway to get past, nor defenses, nor traps. This hallway leads to their goal, or well, nearly their goal. But at the same time, it could be an extremely bad thing. Double figured that since the main hallways weren't locked down, the zerg will more likely then not end up in the hangar lobby as well. Since that is such, Double gave a few signals for a readied attack movement. If they were going to encounter anything hostile in the next few moments, they were going to be ready.

But just as Double began thinking that they were nearing their next destination, a siren sounded, "**WARNING: LEVEL TWO LOCKDOWN IS INITIATING. PLEASE STEP AWAY FROM ALL HANGAR ENTRANCES AT THIS TIME.**"

Blast doors instantly closed on all movable sides.

Double relaxed his stance, extremely infuriated at that one moment. He saw only one small door consol in the whole room, and the RC tech specialist Tero was separate from them. Getting past the level two lockdown could quite literally take forever.

"Well… this is just my fucking day, isn't it?" Double then muttered to himself.

Thurk and Gent approached yet another normal lockdown door. A moment ago, Gent translated to Thurk what the loudspeaker had said, so it was apparent now to Thurk that things were going to be a little harder. Luckily for him, he had a Republic trooper with him.

"Open this door also," he said to Gent.

"Yes, Hunter Thurk," and the infested wretch proceeded to pull off his right glove again and yet again stamp his un-infected thumb onto the consol for a DNA analysis. How very interesting the Republic technology is, being so easy to bypass once you give a simple DNA sample. But then again, maybe it only works for a very specific reason.

And then again, maybe the Republic had no notion that mental warfare would be used against them either.

The consol chirped, "Clone trooper DNA analyzed. You may have access to hangar convergence hallway 312." Thurk didn't understand what the thing said, but it then immediately opened swiftly, so he didn't care one bit.

Because of his raid on the armory, Thurk officially felt twice his pride then before, one reason being he was sure he was as dangerous as a legendary Ultralisk, and probably just a heavy. It's amazing what kind of a payload Thurk's massive hydralisk build could carry, but it's not too surprising considering that these humanoids are small in comparison to him. Nonetheless, Thurk was armed, and thanks to all those little nifty concoctions the drones wiped up, he has a weapon he could use in any situation.

Not only that, but the original design the Republic weapons took on were an obsolete obstacle. Each one had a living part of the zerg with in it, and their bond with Thurk and each other went past an engineered design. It lived with him, and since it did so, there wasn't going to be any complication… no sir, not a single one.

He and Gent continued on; him slithering and the infested humanoid walking. Thurk didn't feel a huge sense of urgency to catch up with the rest of the party, mostly because they were going the shortest path. After all, he had a trooper to unlock every single lockdown door they came across. In fact, Thurk wouldn't be surprised if he got to the hangar before his brethren… and the Ambassador.

And then, Thurk heard something as he and Gent opened another door, trailed into another hallway, and turned another corner into a large, straight hallway which went in directions the left and right. Gent motioned them down the right direction as Thurk tried to listen closely. He heard… soft footsteps. Not troopers, definitely not. Not flesh, unless it was sound-dampening flesh. Perhaps cloth or leather…

But before Thurk even knew it, he was turning around to the obvious sound of another lockdown door being opened behind him and Gent. Thurk felt his blood boil.

About 30 feet down the hallway stood the Republic General Abdule Rithcus. He looked slightly different at first glance: his eyes were cold and gray without color and pupils, and his stance was of utter nihilistic body language.

But the moment the General gazed upon Thurk and Gent for a mere few seconds, his eyes widened and he began growing a childish grin. He bent into an open, though obviously berserking combat stance and then reached to his right hip. At it, Thurk noticed a small device which was approximately 5 ½ inches and metallic.

Thurk wasn't taking any chances at the possibility of it being a weapon. He snapped at Gent, "Run and get to the party, or, go kill your brothers. Either way, you'll end up in the hangar. I'll hold this man off," Gent then hesitated, but still turned around and ran down the hall.

Thurk noticed that he was beginning to smile unconditionally at the General… no, not him, the situation. The anticipation for the upcoming attack. It would be enough to make any hunter filled with glee.

Thurk, though, was not a hunter of honor. Kill or be killed. Only the strong live to tell the tale. That's how it works, or should work. He very quickly swung an arm behind him and pitched up off his back payload a living projectile weapon which he knew to originally be standard issue in the armory he raided.

Upon swinging the weapon into a firing position, the General's smile widened as he, to, jumped into action. He activated the device he held and from it came and emitted a scarlet blade of energy, or so it seemed to Thurk. Thurk had not the body structure to hoist the projectile the way its original design intended, but he felt the tentacles and living protrusions of the infected weapon transmit signals into is brain making him aim almost perfectly.

He commanded with his thoughts to fire, and so it did, just far more then Thurk expected. Apparently it was a semi-automatic, because it the sprayed at lightning velocity spine after spine after spine at its target. The General, upon the first shot, hopped into a completely different position, and then began to seemingly dance, twirling the blade all over the place and quite literally, to Thurks surprise, destroying every spine before it reached him in a volley of molten sparks.

Thurk continued barraging the quick humanoid with the weapon, and then reached back with his other claw for another projectile weapon, any projectile weapon. Unfortunately, his concentration faltered and his aim became off, in which he noticed, in a split second, that the aim was off enough for the General to begin dodging the spines and very _quickly_ advance upon Thurks position.

Upon glaring into the eyes of the maddened General, who now stood only 4 feet or so away from him coming in for an underhand swipe, he changed his action and mind in a split second and instead grabbed an interesting standard issue blade he infested and pulled it up and around just within enough time to meet the General's sword of beaming, scarlet glimmer.

Thurk felt hormones pumping through his body. He truly did, especially when the other warrior's expression turned to utter surprise and dissatisfaction at Thurk's sudden parry.

And then, he hoisted the infested projectile weapon and shoved it into the General's stomach. Thurk had no idea how this humanoid could muster in insane speed, but at the second that a spine fired and was coming down the mouth of the weapon, the General shoved Thurk's locked blade out of the way and then jumped back, literally 5 feet above the ground, barely avoiding being hit at point blank.

Thurk was amazing, astonished. Thrilled even. His opponent defied physics. It's about time someone of the Rogue Zerg was allowed to fight such a deific being. But then again, this fight wasn't going too difficultly for him, so perhaps his opponent isn't impossibly powerful, just fun to watch. Thurk did not stop firing his projectile weapon either, and the General, in an actually frantic manner after landing on his feet, began once again to block and destroy every single shot before it met him.

And at that moment, the weapon ran out of ammunition. He could feel it screaming in pain in a psychic manner, lusting emotionally for something to attack with, but it was spent. Thurk threw aside the weapon and as quickly as possible drew another infested blade, figuring that the momentary weakness of running out of ammo would be exploited.

But to Thurk's surprise, the General did not move, he simply stood his ground, giving a solid stare of a hardened fighter, obviously prepared for more.

He spoke, irritated, "I have no idea what you possibly did to those vibroblades that makes them able to parry my lightsaber, but let me just give a warning, abomination: it's not going to be an advantage that will save you…"

Lightsaber? What an interesting name. And apparently, he did something unexpected, for his blade wasn't supposed to be able to parry the Generals weapon. Perhaps it is just an unexpected effect of the infestation, but who knows, and who cares? Thurk had something that was going to keep him alive, and that's what mattered.

At that moment, Thurk contracted his spiting glands as much as he could, and in a split second, sprayed as much extra acid he could over at the General. This startled him, which was obvious when he jumped back, but still screamed in agony over the fact that he did not avoid getting partially drenched in liquid decay.

Thurk charged, pushing his tail down as hard as possible, scrapping the walls with his swords in flavor of making a hideous noise. He came to a stop, channeling his momentum into his right arm, and then elastically bringing all remaining force into one downward slice as his charge ended quite literally a step away from the Generals feet.

He brought his attack down with all the might of the hunt, and then, it stopped. Dead. The General's open palm was facing up, not touching the blade, but yet somehow stopping it. It was as if at that moment, the General had created an invisible force strong enough to counter all of Thurk's physical force to a point of an exact dead stop.

Thurk's eyes opened wide as the General sliced up and cut Thurk's right arm off at the elbow. And with that, Thurk swung with his left into a horizontal cut, but it was stopped again by the same hand, the same trick. And with that, the General's took both hands, while grasping the lightsaber, and made an open palm shove to Thurk's right.

A huge force then felt as if it slammed into Thurk without being painful. Like falling from the sky at terminal velocity and living easily somehow. The invisible blast sent Thurk tumbling into a room which was conveniently to his left, and upon a startled, single glance, it was full of metal things and white cloth. He didn't care what, because a second after the tumbling stopped, which ended with Thurk balancing himself back onto his tail, the General then jumped high into the air like before, doing a swift front flip, and coming in for a huge, killing, overhead blow.

Thurk, in a split second, made one decision: he dropped his blade, reared back, reached behind himself, just barely avoided the devastating down attack (which quite literally shook the room and sundered the ground), and then pulled one of his baby broodlings out of its sack.

The moment after that, the broodling went somewhere.

Next stop: Republic General face meat.


	8. Chapter 7

**Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg**

Chapter 7

**Time period: 5 minutes after level two lockdown initiation.**

Gent was confused. Without the smell of Thurk nearby, his perspective felt wildly different. Wildly different then it was a few moments ago. He barely even knew anymore what he was doing. He just kept jogging, opening doors, and jogging. Where was he heading again? He really didn't know anymore, so much so that he was both infuriated and scared.

Soon, he became enraged; his flight or fight response getting to him along with his irritation over his short term memory. He stopped at another door, and punched it extremely hard as to vent steam. What… the hell… was going on?

He began remembering. His duty to the Republic. His end. His new duty to the Swarm. The Swarm? But didn't they call themselves the Rogue Zerg? Why was he alive again? His enemy resurrected him… that's what. That abominable hydralisk gave him new life as a hideous mutation.

He back-fisted the wall, cooling down his obviously new genetic anger. That thing thought Gent was his slave! What a joke! Gent is a Mandalorian; a clone brother of the Republic army and nothing else! That thing thought that bringing Gent back to life was going to be a good thing? Hell no! He was going to turn the tables on this whole thing they did to him, yes he was.

He continued to open doors, and then proceeded as fast as he could towards the level two lockdown doors. Gent knew how to slice the door codes for a level two lockdown, which he had told that hydralisk earlier, which is why they hadn't been in such a hurry. Gent was thankful that Master Rithcus had come, because if he hadn't, Thurk wouldn't have had Gent run away.

And now he was alone, without any damnable control over his mind. How very perfect. Gent wasn't particularly in a good state for seeing his old comrades again, but he had to, even if his old brothers in arms were horrified by what he had become.

Because in the end, he could help them. And in the end, he hoped to be more Mandalorian again then… Zerg.

Thurk laid there, breathing deeply in exhaustion. He didn't feel the pain of his lost arm anymore. But then again, he barely felt the pain of total exhaustion even though he couldn't any longer move his body. A few moments ago, his body had finally given way to exhaustion. The fight with the General had been long fought, and he sensed a stalemate at first, but the fact remains: the General has yet to tire.

In fact, the General wasn't even breathing hard as he stood there, standing before Thurk, looking down upon him. He was just barely taller then the height of Thurks protruding carapace, but still the puny figure looked without fatigue of any kind, and he wore his aura with a tremendous sense of victory.

Upon the end of the fight, Thurk actually had the brain power to notice that the room they were in was more likely then not a medical bay. There were chemicals everywhere: smell and sight a like. There were structures with white sheets, which Thurk figured were some sort of bed judging by the stature of the humanoids.

The one thing Thurk regretted in the battle was the broodlings. They hadn't stood a chance, the poor things. One was a gory paste, splattered all over the walls and metallic structures. The other had been mutilated, but had escaped, mostly because the General had just cut it and thrown it aside.

Thurks opponent didn't just show tirelessness, but he showed no pain. All over his cloths and skin were burns of the second or third degree due to his acid; some had eaten holes so thick that they looked like stab wounds. The Generals face was also now riddled with small slashes, all dwarfed by his original, pre-battle scar.

But what was interesting most to Thurk was the General's expression. It was an expression of cold, icy hatred, and yet at the same time, it bore the hue of divine, righteous fury. He wasn't at all one-sided. This being was horribly insane, and it was apparent to Thurk at that point.

Thurk felt an obligation to live his last, exhausted moments freely. He muttered to the victor, "What… *cough* could you hope to gain from being our enemy? Do you seek salvation in the end of those different then you?"

"I merely seek to end the darkness which threatens all life. You are an undoubted abomination, and I can see through any polite gestures you previously made," his gaze was like a hot needle.

Thurk coughed again, feeling blood trickle off his jaws, "You're so arrogant. You think you can make assumptions and be right with your actions towards the assumptions. How can a wielder of psionic power be so close-minded?" For some strange reason, Thurk immediately had an idea how.

"Psionic power? What gibberish are you talking about? The Force allowed me to see through your callus exterior and truly see that you are as ugly on the inside as you are on the outside. Because of such a taint you carry, you're life is forfeit to my lightsaber."

"You mean…" Thurk was actually stunned by a sudden, unexplainable realization, "You're so masterful in your power as to be able to see the natural energy in us? And be able to interpret is? Surely then you must have been *cough*… powerful enough to kill me in a few movements…"

The General shrugged indifferently, "Perhaps I could have. The Force bears a power within it that any Jedi can use to quash all opposition. I see now that I could have crushed your throat from a distance if I had so wished."

"Why didn't you then…?" Thurk felt a welling of fury within him. This… Jedi… played him like a fool. Played him like a game. Not like a foe. Like an ANIMAL. What sort of dishonor is that? Thurk has never fought a battle for glory, and in his first one, he dies spat upon? How revolting… how maddening…

"Because the Force always fights with me. I suppose I just didn't figure I'd need too much of its help to defeat you…"

Thurks breathing stopped. He could feel his eyes shivering. His fury all at once began to rise like a balloon. This… Jedi… had played him like a fool. Played him like a game. Not like a foe. Like an ANIMAL. What sort of dishonor is that? Thurk has never fought a battle for glory, and in his first one, he dies spat upon? How revolting… how maddening…

Thurk felt a presence in the back of his mind. It called to him, like a whisper for death. But it wasn't… it whispered things that were incomprehensible. And yet, they made him feel inflamed. Infuriated. Furious. Enraged. His mind filled purely with a primordial rage.

This thing… this man… this Jedi wishes to end his species. This arrogant, psionic using wretch thinks he can denounce Thurk's home and family as evil and disposable in such a dishonorable way? In such a way as to put himself above the zerg?

What a foul thing. What a pathetic creature. It must be ended. It must be shown terror!

Thurk then felt a euphoric surge dominate his mind. Flashes of images, feelings, senses. His mind was filled and made to understand. It was as if a racial memory from hundred of years in the making was thrust into his mind, his soul, his being.

Humanoid Shaped.

Beam Sword Wielding.

Arrogant Psionic User.

Thurk's mind was remade in a split second. Yet still the General stood before Thurk, not noticing a thing. And then, a moment went by.

**GET UP.**

Thurk's arm instantly regenerated. The next moment came.

**GET UP.**

Thurk felt a surge of energy permeate his body. He slammed his claws into the ground and began to push himself up. The next moment came.

**GET UP.**

Thurk's mind and soul was then overfilled with the essence of wrath. His mind had almost no coherent thought. He finally lifted his head up to the Generals eye height, and saw in the maddened eyes only prey that must be killed. The next moment came.

**END HIM.**

Thurk clenched and pushed down hard on his tail muscle and stood up to his full height and he saw the General stepping back in utter surprise. He roared a bestial roar at what would be the sky, and then looked down upon the Jedi, feeling as if his soul was on fire.

He screamed with an engulfing dark, fiery, wrath, "**PATHETIC TEMPLAR WRETCH! I WILL **_**FEAST**_** ON YOUR REMAINS! FOR THE SWAAAAAAARM!**"

Thurk then lost all coherent thought to mindless rage.

Karsona was absolutely mortified. The more that went on, the less she could bear it. As her and her escort continued through the hallways, numerous booby traps had set off, and already, 3 underlings had been killed in cold, ruthless blood. She had seen bloody hunts out on the surface of the planet, when a part would hunt some of the large solitary ice beasts, and she can easily testify to anyone how much carnage is involved in that.

But seeing THEM die… was a different story. There was even a proximity explosion that went off, and a hydralisk got ravaged to pieces keeping Karsona from suffering that fate…

It was too much. Far too much. Why did this have to happen?

At the moment, the party had taken a pause in what seemed like a large, relatively safe hallway. It also appeared, though, to have nearly impassable doors, which were tremendously annoying, for they'd now have to keep winding in and out of smaller, trap ridden hallways to get past them.

Fortunately, Overlord Ruktis informed them that Syrmatu was attempting to disarm all the traps from the control room, which didn't particularly work with most of them, but was noticeable before they came to a stop.

Karsona just wanted this horrid little journey to end. But then, she felt Hiktic once again tap her on the crest. She peeked over and he was giving her that look. Again. Several times since they had started maneuvering through the base, Karsona had felt overwhelming dread, and Hiktic could somehow tell, and so he thwapped her upside the skull and reminded her of what he said earlier when they were trapped in the meeting room.

So yet again, he had THAT look, the 'I'm about the thwap you again,' look. So right then, Karsona sucked it all up, and tried to keep cool. It wasn't that she didn't want to get thwapped, it was just she had to remain in control. She couldn't afford to be sloppy when everyone's life is at stake based off of her call.

No matter the carnage, no matter the horror, she had to keep calm so that everyone didn't die because of her.

"Hey," Hiktic startled Karsona out of her trying to keep calm. She raised a claw to block, just in case, but he had a solemn look in his eyes.

"You're going to be okay, right?" he asked.

She took a deep breath and put her claw down, "… Yes, I think I am. Thanks for the thought," she smiled at him.

He twitched a muscle above his eye in slight befuddlement, but then smiled back, "Just remember what I said, okay? Everything is going to be fine, and you're not a hindrance…" she nodded, but then he concluded, "And I'm sure that you're going to show how useful you are very soon, even if you don't think you are…"

She didn't particularly understand the second part considering she WAS useless, but she still kept it at mind. But then again, that's not a good way of interpreting it…

And then, it was suddenly time to move again. But it was to be expected considering that they needed to move quickly so that they may escape. They began traversing hallways, the only ones available to them which looped in and out of the main hallway that was closed off.

And then, they came to a crossroad, and Ruktis had not sent them a message for a few minutes. Hiktic spoke, making a snap decision, "Let's try this way," he pointed to the left. They began moving in that direction, but Karsona stood still.

This was because staring at that door was… absolutely horrifying. Like there was a tremendous, terrifying pressure coming from it and pressing against every inch of her body. It was as if a void of shadow lay beyond it.

"I… um…let's… not go that way, everyone…" most of them turned to look at her in confusion, including Hiktic. He even hopped up to her and whispered to her.

"What's going on?"

"I… dunno. I just don't feel like we should go that way…"

"*Sigh* Seriously, what do you mean?"

"I feel like if we go that way, we're going to die…"

Hiktic looked at her with wide eyes, both filled with shock and questions. He then breathed and turned around, motioning the crowd in the other direction. They then proceeded down the hall opposite to the one giving Karsona goose bumps.

Suddenly, Karsona heard a chuckle in her head. She looked around rapidly with her eyes, and no one else seemed to hear it. She then realized it was Overlord Nibloth.

He finished his amusing psychic noise and then said, "My dear Karsona… you know, I always had an inkling about you, but apparently, you're naturally psionic," she almost loudly gasped right there, and barley kept herself from tripping.

He continued shortly, "I could have told all of you about how the General was only a few dozen meters down that hall you turned to, but no, YOU told them. I'm beginning to have an idea why the Mind chose you for this mission, though of course, I cannot decode everything the Mind thinks. For the time being though, it is evident to me that you are special. Extremely special."

As they continued on through the hall, Karsona remained positively stunned.

Double slammed a fist against the locked door. He stood above the consol which was supposed to open it so that they may advance into the hangar lobby, but of course, the level two lockdown is practically unbreakable. If only Gent or Tero were here, because one of them would probably be able to get past this kind of obstacle.

Double and the rest of the group took turns slicing the consol, and it wasn't too… boring. While they waited for someone to succeed, the talked… about everything 7 year old, adult killing machines talk about. Nex even happened to have a deck of cards with him, which was plenty entertaining.

Those who didn't talk or play cards had staring contests, and those mature enough to not do that instead polished their blasters. Double felt a little… impudent. He was leader of this squad for a few minutes, and yet the minute they hit a serious obstacle, they go completely out of line to pass the time. How pathetic…

But then, suddenly, on the door on the other side of them, a speaker sounded, "Access approved. You may have access to hangar convergence hallway 323." A moment after that, the level two lockdown door they weren't trying to get past opened in a flash, and everyone jumped into action.

Cards were thrown down, rags were dropped, gazes were diverted, and weapons were readied. Double even drew two of his pistols in a split second of the door opening and pointed them at what stood before them.

Before them was something unexplainably horrifying. It was not a normal zerg they saw earlier. It was something much more. It was humanoid shaped, and spurting out of almost every crevice of armor was sickening, tumorous flesh. Dainty limbs sprouted from its shoulders, and an asymmetrical tail swung back and forth behind its legs.

Wait, armor? Double looked closely at the thing. It did not move, it simply stood there, near the consol which is hacked to open the door.

Double could then tell. He could. It was… it was…

One of the squad mates flailed his arms into the air in utter shock as he shouted, "GENT?"

It was evident. It was Gent, one of their squad mates. There was no doubt, despite the… change. The extremely off-throwing change.

Double lowered his arms slightly, and said in the remaining lingering silence, "Gent… what… what in death's name have they done to you?"

Gent finally spoke, his voice sounding very familiar, but newly stereophonic, "Many things that I am no longer proud of. And I honestly don't care if you're absolutely shocked, because I'm too pissed off to care about anything except getting them back for what they've done to me. They soiled my blood and spat on my honor, and now I'm going to make sure that I assist you all in accelerating their deaths…"

A few of the squad lowered the weapons, and a few stepped back, utterly horrified and in shock. This was… unspeakable. The zerg can make others like themselves? That's… that's… terrible. Double's arms felt shaky. What kind of enemy are they REALLY fighting against?

Double barely knew what to think. Their comrade was mutated horribly and perhaps insulted gravely. Gent sounded tremendously… logical, familiar, and yet completely different. It was his brother, definitely, but Double just felt something… something off about Gent. It felt as if Gent was different on the inside now as well, not just the outside.

Double finally breathed, anxious but prepared, "… Okay then. Show us now then how much you hate them by helping us with these doors…"

Gent hissed back delightfully, "Absolutely."


	9. Chapter 8

**Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg**

Chapter 8 (Part 1)

**Time period: 15 minutes after level two lockdown initiation**

Oh look… Rithcus smiled. This was the last stretch of hallway to the hanger. He didn't need any shortcuts or anything to get around the extra lockdown. He was a Republic officer and he had a lightsaber. It wouldn't even be 5 minutes before he was gazing into the biggest single room of the outpost.

Abdule walked through the hallway leisurely, whistling. His wounds felt like nothing at all to him. He didn't know why. What was his anesthetic?

Pleasure.

These Zerg were monsters. They seethed with evil, they could transform technology to serve their biological needs, and from what he saw before his fight with that larger zerg, they could also transform other life into their own.

Never before had Jedi Master Rithcus taken so much pleasure in killing.

And he had not yet even killed more then one of them. There were more than a dozen left in the base, and he was to be the force of retribution that would turn them into piles of motionless meat. He smiled at the ideas. The ecstasy of the previous fight had been exhilarating.

But it left him wondering.

What was that gibberish it was talking about? Templar? Psionics? Meaningless terms, but no matter how meaningless they were, no matter how evil the Zerg were, Abdule felt inconceivably interested in them. There was just something about all that hideousness that attracted his attention.

Perhaps after purifying the base, he'd find the rest of them. Kill them? Maybe he didn't have to. Maybe he could study them, like the animals they were, in cages that they deserve. Would the Order allow it? Who cared! They were abominations from another galaxy! Spawned from the pit of darkness and come to devour the Republic!

They deserved the worst that Abdule could offer them.

If only his last victim had not become a mindless shell of a monster. Then it would have been satisfying torturing it to its final breath. Then it would have been so lovely listening to it actually scream, in all of its humongous strength and girth and skill.

At least it was dead, put down like the barbarian it was. Soon, they would all be dead.

And so should anything that got in the General's way.

Nothing would stop the retribution of the light.

* * *

Tiborsis was drooling. Hungry. Not physically. But in every other way a male zerg could be, he was hungry. It was irritating, how slow and smug the General's pace to the hanger was. Tiborsis wanted his blood NOW. He couldn't fight in those tiny hallways even a little. It he could, even if he was the size of a zergling, he would have nonetheless gone in there and fought the powerful psionic warrior.

And probably won also, even at such a small size.

But unfortunately it was not going to happen like that. He had to wait, and listening to the Overlords panic like frightened children was not helping the bad mood.

"Syrmatu, they are close enough to the lobby room to get around by themselves, let go of control over that trooper before the General gets here!" Nibloth said for the third time.

The Intelligent responded quietly, "Soon, old one. Very soon. But not yet. I have a bad feeling about this, so I'm exploiting this strategy as long as possible," it was obvious he was concentrating hard under great stress.

"I would advise you not go on for a minute longer," Ruktis snapped, "We all need to be battle-ready to assist Tiborsis. We can't assume that the General will even give us a few seconds to prepare before he charges in for the kill. You all felt the magnitude of his psionics. We need to all be in or we won't leave this place alive."

"… Very well," Syrmatu surprisingly said, and then visibly let go of the commando he had been mind controlling, "But if the Ambassador and her bloody escort don't make it here alive, I'll blame you."

Tiborsis snarled at all of them, "You fools, if the General does not die, NONE of them will make it out alive. Stop your blathering and get ready," he wasn't in a good mood, and he could feel it. The colossal psionic presence was a mere few steps from the entrance. They could all feel it. The Overlords briefly shuffled around where they hovered, anxious.

And then, without a moments notice, the room was overwhelmingly full.

There he stood, Republic General Abdule Rithcus. Injured, but looking quite the opposite in expression. He took literally a minute to eye all of the huge zerg in the room, one by one, his smile increasing, and his aura enlarging.

Overlord Nibloth very bravely spoke up, "Your genocidal plans end here, Jedi. You will behold the mental fury of the Rogue Zergs hierarchy."

Tiborsis then listened, sickened, and yet enthralled, as the General's grin disappeared, and as he looked blankly at Nibloth. Then, it reappeared, twice as amused, and the General gave probably the most devious laugh any zerg had ever heard.

In one move, he shifted into a battle position and drew his blade of light and said, "And I thought I was already having fun. I hope you bloated bugs have some bite and not just bark, because nothing but a _miracle_ will save you from me."

"COMMANDER! Attack!" The Overlords floated erratically as Ruktis then yelled that, directed at Tiborsis, "Hold him off for our psionics!"

Tiborsis did nothing.

He had heard the Overlord, but did nothing. He hung there still, from the ceiling, watching, out of sight of the bulky Overlords, but not of the General.

Rithcus gave a shrill laugh and jumped inhumanly high in a first charge attempt to cut Nibloth. He barely drifted out of the way to be severely wounded, but instead, his chitin was scalded as the General cut downward, ending his attack on the ground.

"You damned coward Mutalisk! Get into the fight!" Syrmatu yelled before beginning to channel a power.

Tiborsis was silent… and then softly murmured, "This is supposed to be my fight alone. If you three kill him before he kills you, then what's done is done. _But I refuse to fight him at all but alone_," in his last sentence he hissed loudly, and the Overlords threw panic and terror and outrage into the Ariel Commander's mind.

"How DARE you! You greedy traitor! Who are you to betray lives for glory!" Nibloth screamed as the General laughed again and landed on top of his carapace with one jump.

Tiborsis chuckled, "This is nothing about glory. This is my hunt. Until you are dead, it is your hunt. Let's see who is the strongest Rogue Zerg alive now, shall we? Surely it must be _you_, in all your hierarchy might who will dominate this opponent, aren't you?"

Tiborsis and the General both laughed, not in unison, not in the same tone, but they did nonetheless. Nibloth fell, his entrails now spilled out of an open wound and his figure deflating. The oldest Overlord in the room died, and Ruktis blasted Rithcus many meters away with a psionic power, yelling, "YOU ARE NOT FIT TO BE A ROGUE ZERG, TIBORSIS!"

"AND YOU ARE NOT FIT TO LIVE!" Tiborsis roared back, "You pathetic Overlords control us, monitor us, get above us, rule the lives of all underlings, and for what? Because these are you rights by your genome? THIS SHOWS YOU HOW WEAK YOU ARE! We are Zerg! Only the strong should deserve their bearings, and the only ones in this room that are strong are the General and _I_," Tiborsis smiled, at last, and was silent.

Only he was going to be left.

And then, his prey would be his, and no one else's.

This was his destiny.

To set the standard of Zerg ferocity strength and save his people.

By himself.

Ruktis was the fastest of the Overlords who were fighting. But his humongous claws were still not fast enough, even with psionics, to hit the General, who was becoming more and more inhumanly fast. He would swipe, very quickly for his size, and the General would vault, or flip, fast enough to avoid boulder-sized slams going at nearly terminal velocity, each of which greatly dented the floor or wall every time they hit a surface. Rithcus was gleeful, and one by one, he dodged and attacked, cutting off individual dainty limbs, each one being more painful then the next, each one provoking a louder shriek of pain.

Tiborsis could tell he loved it.

Ruktis then fell to the ground, having lost too much blood to move, to sustain his inflation and his wings. He would likely die within a few minutes.

Rithcus seemingly took even greater delight as he turned then to fight Syrmatu alone. Both were powerful psychics, Tiborsis observed, but the General was tougher, in the long run. The High Overlord drifted as quickly as he could, strafed as fast as possible to avoid the strikes, shooting lightning, creating wells of gravity, blowing Rithcus back with pure kinetic force.

He was good, but the Jedi was better.

No matter how many wounds he sustained, he got back up. Anyone else would have been a paste at the Intelligents psionic assault, but not the General. Tiborsis was excited beyond belief. The General was smoking and wounded and bludgeoned even more, but he was unstoppable, and the High Overlord was not immovable. Syrmatu thought it prudent to try flying as high as possible in the hanger and barraging the General from above, which as first proved useful, the Ariel Commander was impressed. Very much. He even felt like perhaps the High Overlord even might win as he forced the General to jump, run, and dodge while frequently tossing him around like a ragdoll with the explosions of kinetic energy and energy bolts as they hit the ground.

But Tiborsis knew it wouldn't be over.

Syrmatu boomed with as loud as his enormous stereophonic voice could, "MY POWER IS UNMATCHED, JEDI! SURRENDER AND I MAY CONSIDER SPARING YOUR PUNY LI-," but he was interrupted.

General Rithcus gave a very shrill, thrilled laugh as he suddenly held his hand up, clamped a fist down and made a pulling motion in his direction, facing the Intelligent. Syrmatu was abruptly pulled out of the highest nook of the hanger and he plummeted to the ground, slamming and skidding across the metal in a huge racket, his head stopping literally at the feet of the General.

He stood above the Overlord, smiling… and then plunged his saber into Syrmatu's head. Tiborsis felt the Intelligents life fade away before his mind and body, his last thoughts being filled with rage towards Tiborsis and his choice.

And then there was one.

And he and Rithcus were as happy as could be.

* * *

Kriss collapsed partially onto the consol, sitting at the control room chair also. He breathed, hard. At first, he didn't know what to think. He could move his eyes, and so he was confused. He could move them? He moved a finger; then his left hand, then his arm. Then he sat up, and stared at his palms, his eyes moving rapidly.

He had control! At last! He laughed out loud and then took his helmet off. He breathed with his lungs, voluntarily, by his own will. He kept laughing, here and there, wiped his brow of the relieved flop sweat and then leaned his forehead on the controls.

His breathing slowed, and his laughter and smile softly faded. He had never been happier and more relieved in his life then to have control over his body back. But it was a short lived good mood. He blinked, now calm, his expression blank as he went back on what had just happened. The zerg Overlord… Syrmatu, had mind controlled him to the extent that he had no control over his body. While it at first seemed horribly malicious though, after the event, Kriss was even more conflicted now then before. Syrmatu did not control every single last thing. He didn't control Kriss's thoughts or his beliefs or anything deep like that, just his body's movements.

And just as Kriss could see through his eyes, unable to do anything, he could also see through the zerg's… eyes, he supposed, also unable to anything.

These Zerg really came here with the best of intentions. Maybe some of them seemed like vicious killers, but it was always because they were hunters, warriors, knights… here for protection, fighting a battle they had never fought before. The Overlord that had controlled his body was not even a frequent slave driver of any kind. He merely wanted to take Kriss's and the squad's tactical advantage and use it to get his people to safety.

It was painful.

Being a clone trooper of the mighty Galactic Republic… of all the times in the universe he wished he could stop himself from obeying a Jedi, he wished he been able to earlier. The only way he could go against the order now was the fact that he saw, with his own 'eyes,' that Jedi Master General Abdule Rithcus was _out of his fucking mind_.

Perhaps that Commander Zerg… Tiborsis? Maybe he was a vicious duelist, but the General was a madman. Not a Jedi anymore in the least. A true force of insanity and evil; thirsting for blood and battle with aliens out of self righteous fury. Kriss didn't know what the cause was, he didn't know what exactly to do to stop this onslaught…

But he knew he had to do something.

He picked up and put his helmet back on, sealing it. He checked each piece of armor on his body for preparation, fixing any imperfections. Then he picked up the rest of his armaments, and his DC-17. Right before exiting the control room, he turned off all of the lockdown procedures that the Overlord has put in place, because at this point, he needed a fast exit to the hanger to confront the General before everything went to hell.

He then stormed out into the hallway at full speed.

Kriss had only one enemy today; not the Zerg, but none other then his former officer: Former Jedi Master Rithcus.

Hiktic was near his breaking point. He could barely handle the fact that he had lost so many in one sitting, in comparison to all of the hunts he's led before. These were his first major casualties, and he didn't know what to do. He almost wished Karsona could hold herself entirely together, because that fact that she could barely carry her own footsteps was not helping the situation.

But it wasn't even the members of the party that weighed so much on everyone. Only moments ago, they had all nearly become malignantly ill as they listened to the cries of agony as the Overlords were slain… as the damned Ariel Commander allowed their deaths. Most underlings didn't share the view that the Overlords were slave drivers. Newborn Overlords tend to assert their power in an uncomfortable way, but ones like Nibloth, Ruktis… Even High Overlord Syrmatu the Intelligent… they were friends. They bettered the Rogue Zerg. They weren't hindrances.

Practically feeling their pain had dangerously lowered the moral of the party. Karsona, as observed, looked like death. And Hiktic felt responsible. He wasn't prepared to live through this, even a little. But no matter what, he refused to loose all hope. He'd fight to the ends of the world for Karsona… he'd die for this mission. Proudly.

As would the others.

It didn't matter what happened, as long as the true enemy is destroyed and enough of them get back home. Hiktic then peered back, at Karsona, and she slowly walked in the very back of the group. He let the hydralisks lead as he then slowed down and slipped back next to her in the walk.

She didn't look at him. Only at the ground as he said, "Don't worry, we're almost there. Those lockdown doors all got deactivated, so we'll be fine."

She growled lightly at him, "Right, we're just fine while the Overlords lie dead in our destination and a damn contingent of soldiers is out to kill us," Hiktic noticed tears welling up in her eyes.

He shook his head and sighed, "I… I know. But please, don't worry… I won't let them take you," unexpectedly, she peered at him as he added, "I'm here for you. There isn't anyplace I wouldn't follow you."

She stammered, "B-but… I'm a useless, tiny zergling! What have I possibly done to earn that kind of respect?"

"I…" Hiktic had to think about it for a second, "… You have a strong heart. All of us can feel it. You've held yourself together, despite your inexperience, and all you've willed is for us to live and nothing else, not even your own life. You're selfless. We'd die proudly for you because you'd do the same for us."

He noticed out of the corner of his eyes that she was looking at him, speechless, and then she turned away, looking back at the ground, this time in silent contemplation. Then he barely heard her softly mutter, "Thank you…"

And with that, Hiktic smiled. He didn't know… why, but he felt far more optimistic at that moment. But suddenly, he was slightly shocked most of the zerg in the party turned to give Karsona a glance and a sign of acknowledgement. At another glance, Hiktic noticed her tears well up more until they glittered down her soft face.

He didn't know what was going on in her mind, but he knew that everyone else in the group was still extremely proud of her for being here for everyone.

Then the party suddenly stopped, and Hiktic noticed why, there was a hopefully unlocked door now, sitting ahead of them. If they were lucky, it would lead to the hanger or nearly to the hanger.

"Alright! Hydralisks, open it up please," the Hunter Party leader chirped.

* * *

"So this is the lobby? You're sure Gent?" Gent heard Double ask as he typed in a splice to open the only locked door left in the base, probably. He was, to be honest, infuriated. After too many minutes of walking, he still hadn't encountered the monsters that did this to him, and he was positively lusting for a fight.

"Yes, Double, this is the door to the hanger lobby. I know the corridors like the back of my hand, even after a lockdown," Gent almost snarled back with his semi-stereophonic voice.

"Good thing then. Everyone, get ready," Double said. Gent then heard the rest of the squad shuffle around behind him, preparing for a combat move considering they don't know what's behind the door inside the lobby.

The door greeter chimed quickly, and then opened the door. If Gent were still totally human, he would have gasped, but instead, he yelled, "MOVE! Get into cover, all of you!" He jumped on all fours and charged forward. Inside the lobby was the main group of Zerg, among them the Ambassador. They were examining the room and also looking out the window of the lobby down into the hanger at whatever was going on down there.

Immediately when Gent charged, fury and bloodlust filling his soul, the Ambassador screamed and the larger of the zerglings yelled, "GET INTO COVER, HUNTERS! With me, warriors; hold your ground! Do not let them touch Karsona! For the Hive Mind! For the Rogue Zerg!" and the leader zergling pushed the Ambassador into cover with a hydralisk and the zerglings charged from the other side of the room with leader, directly towards Gent and his rush.

He heard Double begin to yell orders as the clones then got into the nearest cover they could, and if not cover, they strafed around hoping to find or making cover. Blaster fire and acid needle spines began to rocket around the room, taking a zergling down, incapacitating a clone, just as Gent and the lead zergling hit head on in a colliding charge.

Gent was stunned, greatly, from the collision, and couldn't tell who hit what and where, but he didn't care; all he felt was rage. His control was lost in red hot hatred for the ones who tried to enslave him and ruin his Mandalorian honor. As soon as he could, he looked up and around, still on all fours. The lead zergling was still stunned, and one of his backup jumped to the side in preparation to rake Gent. A single flash of his training surged through is body, and as the zergling pounced, Gent quickly slid, his legs facing the zergling, and he kicked upward with both of them and its attack was successfully countered as it went flying backwards.

Right after though, the lead zergling roared and tackled Gent, which he regretted, for his gut was exposed, so as opposed to trying to claw back, he got into a grapple with the thing, rolling around on the ground, trying to use his arms and extra limbs to keep it's claws from cutting him open.

He saw a quick opening as it managed to chop one of his shoulder arms off, and he exploited it by making a quick and precise punch to a sensitive area on its abdomen. It was stunned for just one second long enough for Gent and grasp it around the middle and throw it aside for 2 meters.

Now crouched on one knee, Gent took a quick look around the room. Another one of his squad-mates had been killed, spines to the neck and head, but a zergling that had rushed past him was slain in melee with another one of the commandos, who was not far behind Gent in melee-to-ranged combat.

The lead zergling regained it's stance after being thrown quickly, and snarled, "Why do you attack us, clone? You have been influenced to know our views! What makes you do this when we do not wish for any bloodshed?"

"You have imposed upon me the visage of a monster, and you tried to enslave me to your ideals, not understand them!" Gent roared in retaliation, clenching his arms and fists.

"YOU WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO ATTACK IF YOU WERE A SLAVE!" Another clone fell, along with his hydralisk opponent.

"BECAUSE I HAVE FREED MYSELF FROM YOUR CONTROL!" and Gent lunged at the zergling again, enraged almost beyond coherent thought, intending to attack without prejudice.

But then his strike stopped.

An inch away from the zergling, his muscles tensed up again. Gent's _and_ the zergling's eyes widened in disbelief. Gent stammered in panic, "No…n-no…" and then snarled in rage, "THIS IS THE PRODUCT OF YOUR EVIL! STRIPPING MY WILL OF ALL THAT WAS MANDALORIAN!"

"Th-this…" the lead zergling whispered back, somehow hearable among the surrounding battle, "This is not my doing… I never thought such a thing would be imposed on a sentient creature. The drones made these to assimilate mindless creatures, not intelligent beings!" Gent was surprised at how horrified the zergling was.

And then the voice came back.

Gent screamed, and jumped back from, wrapping his arms and single extra limb around his head. The voice was so soothing… it was painful. Painful feeling it sway him now that his system pulsed with zerg pheromones. He didn't want to hear it. He wasn't apart of the Swarm, he was a son of Mandalore, of the Republic Grand Army!

But the voice did not lie! It kept saying he was a part of the Zerg Swarm! The Garm Brood! It couldn't be true, but it must be! Gent crouched on the ground, nearly in the fetal position. He couldn't take it. The horror; his identity was unknown to him. What was he? Who is he? Why does the voice have to be angry with him?

"Who am I…" despite the assumed loss of function in his tear ducts, he felt a single tear barely force its way out of his infected eye.

Inside his head, his mind screamed for closure. He had nothing, and everything; a life, but a death. He didn't want this. He wanted to be something. What was he? Clone? Zerg? Both?

Both…?

He opened his eyes, and everything was silent. The battle raged, but he heard nothing. He felt something swirling around inside him. It was a heat as dangerous as a sun and as life giving as a passion.

Both…

He took his hands off his head. He had his answer, finally. The voice would not tell him otherwise, and his birthright would not change his mind.

"I…" he quietly began. He saw the zergling he was fighting gasp and then yell orders and then begin to jump out of the way.

Gent felt the heat well up to its pinnacle, and thusly, he stood up to his full height, passion filling his veins, arms flexed out as he then yelled, "I AM SON OF THE REPUBLIC! CHILD OF THE SWARM! **I! AM! GENT!**"

And with that, Gent exploded, finally finding peace away from what felt like the most powerful conflict he's ever faced within his heart.


	10. Chapter 9

**Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg**

Chapter 9

**Time Period: Shortly before the death of Gent.**

Rithcus, in all of his ecstasy, was actually a little overwhelmed. Just a little bit. The pummeling from those… Overlords? They seriously did a number on him. He had a few broken bones, and was actually using the force to hold said fractures together. He wished he could just stop right now, he wished the fight was over and that they were all dead. But, sadly, they weren't.

He wouldn't stop until they all were.

After all, he was unstoppable. He was Jedi Master Abdule Rithcus! Slayer of 4 zerg, 3 extremely powerful in the dark side of the Force! And now, what seemed like the most powerful of them all was in his grasp. He was going to enjoy this fight _so_ much. Watching it squeal in terror and agony as it realizes its arrogance was the death of it.

Abdule couldn't help but begin laughing under his breath, grinning, as the 'Mutalisk,' Tiborsis, unlatched itself from the highest crevice of the ceiling, growling all the way, and at first dropping down, but then letting out its wings to land safely on the floor. The General could feel his eyes shivering in anticipation. As it landed, the worm curved its body into a 'C' shape, and it stilted itself in its wing-arms, which were apparently strong enough to hole its entire weight even when not in flight.

Its bottom mouth gurgled, pleased, "And now, my prey, you are _mine_ to consume. Finally, after all these short years, I will have a truly worthy opponent. One almost at my level…"

Abdule cackled once, "Is that all I am to you, monster? A meal?" he chuckled loudly again.

"The life in the galaxy has always been about survival of the fittest. Only the strongest predators remain alive and live to evolve to a higher purpose. Do you think your species gained intelligence by being nice and herbalistic? No, you killed things, many things, many people," it replied, sounding uncaring.

Abdule smirked and got into another combat stance, "Such is the obvious argument of the dark side of the force, but always invalidated. New intelligence calls for new methods to obtain advancement, and killing each other is never the answer. Your evil will be called into question, by me!" his grin widened.

Surprisingly then, the gigantic worm made a huge reverberating noise, which Rithcus speculated to be laughter. After maybe a dozen second, it calmed down and said, "Y-you… HA… you hypocritical fool. No wonder your injuries do you no pain. You're lost in an insane scheme involving religious and psionic retribution!" its head leaned in closer to Rithcus, and its mouth smiled, "What a delicious mindset you have."

"I answer to a higher call, zerg abomination!" Abdule's smile broke into a dissatisfied sneer, "I do not answer to a zealous religion of any kind! I answer to the will of the light side of the Force! The Force is no mere idea; it is reality; the energy and web that binds everything together. These zerg you didn't help out were masters in it! You dare mark it as mere religion?"

The Mutalisk scoffed, "… Psionics, the Force, it doesn't matter. Your perception of something real is that of the fantastical. It has no will, it has no morals, it is merely a tool for the intelligent and mindful to use to their advantage. Did you _truly_ think you are in the right because your religious doctrine says you are?" it gave the biggest smile that Abdule had ever seen on a living being, "My prey, **you and I are exactly the same.**"

Rithcus snapped. He? Monster? … Sith? His face contorted, and then, it went blank. He felt his consciousness slip into a void; a void of nothingness. This monster claims him a master of the dark side? A bring of evil and death and horror?

He would show it that even the Light tortured that which is Dark.

He wouldn't stop until it _begged_ for mercy; BEGGED for a death to end its agony. NOTHING WOULD STAND BEFORE THE LIGHT SIDE OF THE FORCE! ALL WILL PERISH BENEATH IT!

Without any expression, color in his eyes, or pain in his nerves, Jedi Master General Abdule Rithcus jumped into the fray to meet the Zerg Ariel Commander head on, no matter the size difference.

His assault started with an underhand rush with his saber, using the Force to propel his movement. Within a split second, he closed the distance, intending to cut its lower head in half horizontally. Abdule didn't notice anything, but assumed that the worm must've been surprised, because it didn't jump back fast enough to stop one its tusks from being cut, cleanly half.

But it wasn't stupid, it was a combat master just like Rithcus, which is why it actually quickly, in momentum of it jumping back, hopped up a foot using its wing-arms and twirled around, multiplying the force and flailing its mouth-tail in a circular pattern towards Abdule. It was _frighteningly_ fast, but Abdule was still able to vault high, quickly, where he stood and narrowly avoid being batted by it into a wad of broken bones and torn meat.

When he landed on his feat, he had only a split second to hear it roar and continue its attack by whipping it tail around up, then saulting forward and bringing it down overhead with more momentum then the first counter. Abdule strafed as quickly as the force would take him to the left, and landed prone, his face towards the floor, also avoiding the humongous attack.

The worm wheeled back into an upright position, his overhead attack having not only caused an ear-shattering noise, but also having left a very large, almost artistic impression of its tail in the metal. Abdule, even though exhausted, still was not panting and not giving expression, but still watched as the worm then took a second to stop and turn its eyes to look at him.

It bore no expression but amusement.

Abdule, unfortunately, was no longer amused.

He braced himself for the next attack then, as it suddenly and surprisingly, despite being many dozens of feet away now, twirled around like in its first counterattack. For a split second, Rithcus didn't understand the motion, but then almost showed facial expression as its mouth-tail, as it whipped around in Abdule's direction, spat out a huge, chitinous glaive, as thin as a door, as wide as the General was tall and as sharp as… well, Abdule didn't want to find out. He dove to his right as it flew at him quickly and implanted itself halfway into the wall next to him, now noticeably dripping with bodily acid, likely use to project it in the first place.

Rithcus didn't know how to counter, because almost immediately after, the Mutalisk whipped in another direction and launched _another_ bladed worm, as if it was no trouble whatsoever. It continued to do so, and each consecutive time, Abdule had to throw himself around to stop himself from being decapitated, dismembered, and mutilated, etc. The problem was that he was running out of distance with each dodge, so in a few moves, the Ariel Commander would take his life.

But the General was smarter then that.

He stopped and didn't dodge as the next glaive came at him. Instead, he quickly pulled his hand up and sent a blast of the Force outward against it, greatly slowly its trajectory, slow enough then for Abdule to then swipe out with his saber and slice the glaive to 4 pieces before it hit the ground without cutting him.

Tiborsis squealed, "Now _that's_ what I've been waiting for, Jedi! GIVE ME MORE!" and he launched another one, not to the General's surprise.

After his last defense move, Abdule did not feel threatened by the glaives any longer, and to prove his point, he held up both his hands this time, open palm. The first hand slowed and then stopped the glaive. The second then shot the glaive back at the worm at twice the original speed.

Rithcus almost smiled as the chitin weapon actually met its target in the midst of the counter attack, as intended. It flew off, and despite Tiborsis dodging most of the damage, it still cut a quarter of the width into his segmented body, flying past him after and still implanting half way into the wall many, many feet behind him.

The worm winced in pain for a second, or two, which Rithcus quickly took advantage of. He rushed, and then jumped high, lunging downward to try and cut the mutalisk's head at least a little bit. But he was stopped, because very quickly, in one motion, the Mutalisk retracted its right wing, whipped the edge of it over the blood from its newly opened wound, and then struck out with the wing as if it were a blade, at the overhead General.

Rithcus's eyes opened a single millimeter as it was forced to bring his lightsaber up to guard, and was almost shocked to expression and it didn't cut the wing like a hot knife through butter. The bony edges of the wings were not only armored to the point of a bladed edge, but the coated blood somehow created a natural barrier to stop the lightsaber's cauterizing heat.

This was going to hurt.

Because the force of the upward counter from the Mutalisk sent Rithcus flying, since he had no foundation when falling downward from the air, all the way up into the highest reaches of the hanger. Rithcus knew that he would be severely injured beyond repair as he collided with the ceiling, which is why he pointed upward and used a blast of force. The blast was such that he very softly touched the ceiling, to the point where he gently made a kneeling position on it as if he were on the ground. Then a second after, gravity took affect and he began to fall, but it was no problem, for he immediately took a hand and grasped a nearby hanger rafter, and then easily pulled himself up onto it and crouched there, looking downward on the worm.

It hadn't lost track of him though just because he had gone up so far. As he looked down, it shot a glaive upwards at him and almost cut his head off as he quickly withdrew his head from the direction of motion. It landed and cut into the ceiling, literally in front of Rithcus, as if it were a shield. If it had been shiny, he'd have seen his expressionless reflection.

But he had no time to reflect on that. He quickly then zoomed to the left as another glaive worm shot upward and cut the metal rafter beam in half that he had been standing upon a split second ago. Rithcus kept darting around the metal rafters using the force, hoping the Mutalisk would loose track of him. Ultimately though, it was useless. Rithcus didn't know how, but after looking downward for a second, he saw the Mutalisk shoot a glaive in just the right upward angel for it to then ricochet off the wall and mathematically fly in the General's direction.

With such, he kept darting around to avoid the now _bouncy_ glaive worms which the Mutalisk was actually doing very good at aiming. Who would've thought that Zerg were good at combat mathematics? Abdule wished that the thing would fly up here into this cramped space, but that would be too easy. There was even one glaive that ricocheted around the rafters more then a dozen times before Rithcus had to suddenly slow and cut it to pieces.

This monster was good. Really good.

"I grow tired of this charade! Come back down here so I may eat you!" and with that, Rithcus stopped, because Tiborsis then shot out 2 glaives every second for a few seconds, and each glaive hit one link at each end of the rafter beams. Suddenly, Rithcus realized, as it happened, that the worm had just cut off every link to the point that the entire rafters would fall down.

And so they did.

The General found himself free falling now, slightly above the falling rafters. A quarter of the way down Rithcus at last widened his eyes in adrenaline-pumping shock as Tiborsis zoomed straight upward, streamlined, twirling around, through a gap in the falling rafters, up in front of the General. The Commander finished its twirl and flight by opening its wings and then knocking them back, about to making a reaping motion with its bladed pinions.

And almost symmetrically, Rithcus was 10 feet away, directly in between the coming attack, midair. He had only seconds. The Mutalisk cackled and reaped its natural weapons inward, the direction being for a killing cut-in-half. But the General did not fear. He did not feel. He only knew.

And so he stretched his hands out of both his sides, one pointed to the corresponding wing, and he called upon the force. Instead of a blast, as if Rithcus were a lightning rod, electricity welled out from inside him and shot out, arched midair onto the mutalisk's wings, up their bones and skin and plate, around them, into Tiborsis's body and finally stopped as Rithcus heard the clang of the rafters hitting the ground in conjunction with the Commander's shrill, shocked scream of pure pain.

And at that moment, Rithcus then pointed both of his hands downward and pushed with Force, and his fall was slowed. He slammed onto the ground, the blast bending and widening the gap in fallen rafters which he had landed in. One hand on the ground in his kneeling position, he looked up as the Mutalisk just barely flapped its wings enough in recovery to stop its fall from being extremely detrimental to its health.

Tiborsis rolled a little on the ground as he landed, and then quickly hopped and stood back up on its upright worm position on its wings, but Rithcus could definitely tell that it was _much_ more painful for it to stand on its wings like that now. Abdule's expression was once again blank, nonexistent, and cold like the void he felt only of now.

Was he winning? Even if not yet, the Light would prevail.

He listened as Tiborsis snarled, "Clever, Jedi wretch. Perhaps this is actually a battle of the predators after all. But in the end, you will be _mine_. I know I am stronger, the strongest zerg alive and I will show you why!" Abdule squinted his eyes as he then watched the Mutalisk clench all of the muscles in his body.

He watched in unexpressed disgust as the Mutalisk's body throbbed with blood and hormones, and Rithcus literally felt its dark Force aura expand to the point of which it would affect the surrounding physics. He heard Tiborsis give a very low-key, constant, guttural growl as his aura expanded, wider, thicker, and his muscles grew slightly larger, and his wounds closed and his electricity burned faded and peeled away. After a few more seconds, he gave one large roar, and the air around the Mutalisk zoomed around and billowed outward, his aura now expanded beyond anything Rithcus had seen in the dark side.

He almost smiled. It was delicious, deep, deep down, knowing that he'd get to kill this monstrosity of the dark side. One who used the Force to instantly accelerate muscle growth and regeneration? One who was now obviously burning away his life force to the dark side?

Force lightning arched around the mutalisk's most prominent bladed and spiked features, and he said, his voice now deeper and stereophonic on three new levels, "_I knew one day that my ultimate opponent would be a psychic, and so my own psionic training involved the absorption and consumption of offensive psi that connects with my body. Your kinetic energies have given me regenerative bulk, and your electricity has turned my inner life force into a conductor of static electricity. Insufferable, insane, pathetic humanoid Jedi, your demise is imminent._"

And with that, no matter how expressionless, Rithcus was in awe on the inside. It was such an efficient, dazzling display of empowering force powers, that no matter how evil, Rithcus felt… envious, even. Envious…

He then felt the void in the back of his mind. It didn't call out to him, but it offered something. Salvation; the Light's salvation? The power of the avatar of the Jedi? Is that what lay beyond the Veil of Rithcus's mind? The power… the energy! He was to be the champion of the Jedi! It was his destiny!

He reached out and grasped the power. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, his arms when limp, and he began to levitate above the ground. As he floated higher above the ground, up to seven feet, his arms levitated up, outstretched, his hand still holding his sacred weapon of the Jedi. Images… no, not images, feelings. His passions, his fears, his anger, his hatred, his… light. It beamed before his psyche. It called to him, the Light. It would be his true power, and his only cost was his life.

He would gladly die to see the death of all Zerg.

And with that, his wish was granted.

He couldn't help but suddenly scream out in pain as he felt as if his blood was boiling. The radiant goodness of the light streamed up his veins, causing unbearable pain, agony, emotion.

What was his passion?

To destroy all the evil that was the Dark Side. The Zerg; Tiborsis; Karsona… he would bring about their end.

What was his fear?

Of death; of failure. His muscles tensed as the radiant heat of the Light poured into them.

What was his anger?

His anger towards the Zerg and their darkness; their existence was a mockery of all life. His rage towards them was limitless. He felt his aura expand greatly and his muscles gain vitality.

What was his hatred?

Hatred for his enemies; for himself. His eyes sparked up and glowed a bright scarlet, blood dripping from his ears.

What was his light?

The retribution he would bestow, the sacrifice he would now make to put and end to these abominations; forever. All of the metal within twenty feet of Rithcus exploded outward as a rip-field of Force energy formed around him.

He fell to the ground, on one knee, and slowly stood. He felt everything, and he felt nothing. His entire body was cloaked in a transparent wisp of bright scarlet energy, and a field of was seemed like spiritual disintegration was mildly formed around him.

He felt cold and hot as he then grinned widely and yelled, his voice now also stereophonic, "BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE LIGHT SIDE, MONSTER OF THE ABYSS! YOU WILL BE NOTHING BUT ASHES IN THE WAKE OF MY FURY!"

And then both he and Tiborsis were surprised as a large explosion went off. They both quickly peered, Rithcus to his left, at the windows of the hanger lobby, which had been shattered, and their frames bent and busted from some sort of… bomb? What happened in there?

But Rithcus didn't ponder it for a second longer. Immediately, he charged into action, his lightsaber pulsing with energy, and another blade of pure Force energy materializing in his other hand.


End file.
